Topic Proposal

Topic Proposal

            One aspect of the story “The Handmaid’s Tail” by Margaret Atwood that I found intriguing was the control placed on women and how the government viewed them as such a threat but in the other hand a dire need to preserving the human race. The controls placed on them such as sex, sexuality, clothing, reading etc is nothing new but for it to be implemented in a western society such as America is an interesting concept that I would like to research further to see if control on women to this extreme would be possible in the U.S and what it’s gain would be.

            I plan to research female control through out the world such as in the Muslim culture and relate it back to the text for comparison and then analyze the findings to see if in reality it could be implemented in real life here in America. I hope by this research I can also gain a better understand as to why the female characters in Atwood story were so restricted and why writing and reading especially of the bible was such a punishable offense for women. Through this research I also want to gain a better understanding of the clothing women are required to wear and if the colors are of any symbolic meaning.

            I find some of the controls placed on the characters confusing and through this research I will hopefully be able to gain more understanding of “The Handmaid’s Tail”.

 The cover of the first edition.

Interview with Margaret Atwood talking about The Handmaid's Tail

Thesis blog

My thesis statement for essay #3:

No other war has caused so much variation in opinion and continues to now, thirty years after its completion, which is that of the Vietnam War. One crucial aspect of controversy surrounding the war was that of the draft and the stigma associated towards the 60,000 Americans who fled to Canada to avoid it. Looking back now thirty years later, where they right to flee? Did that war create more harm than good, especially to the American Soldiers that fought there?

Question: Where they right to flee and did that war create more harm than good?

Question: Is it arguable?

 Yes I do believe it is arguable as the topic is one of a lot of tension through out previous decades and to this day 30 years after the war ended people still have very strong opinions on the people who did flee the draft.

Question: Is it Specific?

 The book “The Things They Carried” covered a range of topics and issues concerning the Vietnam War, the draft is just one of those topics covered, it is a very specific in that it covers not the draft as a whole but just the point of fleeing the draft and the consequences of going to war or choosing to dodge the draft years later.

Question: Could I support it with evidence from the text?

Tim Obrien covers the draft and the possibilities of fleeing to Canada in great detail. From his 6 days he spent in a cabin at the boarder of Canada and the strong emotions that it caused for him and how it worked through it to ultimately decide to go home and go to war.

Question: Would my thesis statement be considered a strong thesis statement?

I do believe I have a strong foundation in my thesis statement and pose an opinion and do give a question which I intend to answer and prove with facts through out my paper. The question I pose is specific enough and not vague. The text “The Things They Carried” covers the topic well and has ample evidence to back up my thesis statement, but due to my question being so specific there is also plenty of research material available to use in my paper.

Midterm Portfolio Letter

Laura Darrow

Course Name: ENG 102, Section # 32354

Date: 10/16/2010

Dear Laura,

Subject: Midterm Portfolio Letter

After completing English 101, I was excited about beginning this class. Although the first eight weeks of this class seem to have flown by, when I look back over what I have completed and learned I am surprised at what I have been able to accomplish. The major test I have faced so far would have to be Poetry, besides the word always making me cringe; I struggled at first attempting to wrap my mind around the poems in Poetry of Witness. When you know you have troubles with a particular area it seems to make the whole process even more of a struggle because of the mental blocks you subconsciously put up. After pushing through the blocks and reading more and more poetry and writings on the concept of poetry I was happily surprised with the progress I began to make, it all started to become less of a blur and shock horror I actually got it. Due to this revelation I had I would say the work I completed in the poetry section of this class was by fair my biggest success, I even attempted at writing my own piece of poetry.

The readings as far have been some what out of the norm for me, which I have enjoyed.

Tim O’Brien’s and Sean Huze’s writings I found to be oddly captivating and disturbing at the same time. Being a Psychology student the obvious psychological issue and themes in both stories drew me in immediately, and I have found it enjoyable and a great practice to address them in my writing.

The theory of literary analysis I found particular interesting in that you get to deal more into the mind of the author more so than any other writing I have done to now, thinking out of the box and delving that deeply into a store can give you such a more in depth opinion and outlook on the story you have just read. As for the rest of this semester I hope to keep fine polishing my writing skills and use of  grammar, I am still finding myself getting so into what I am writing and not paying attention to how I am writing it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the insight you have given me so far in this class, it has been a very rewarding experience.

Sincerely,

Sarah Robinson

Operation Homecoming Analysis

Review of Operation Homecoming- Writing the Wartime Experience.

            The documentary by Richard E. Robbins, Operation Homecoming-Writing the Wartime Experience was moving and inspirational. Tim O’Brien makes an opening statement during the documentary that I found fascinating which was “Some things you should not heal from”, so that made me wonder does the process of writing not so much make what they went through easier to deal for them but more so a way of preserving the memory for future generations.

            Besides the inability to heal from their experiences Tim O’Brien also describes how some words are just not sufficient enough for what they go through. The guilt of shooting the enemy, shooting the innocent are all feelings of emotion common with war so the soldiers have little choice to deal with it during times of battle so they write or burry it deep inside their mind hoping they never have to face it again.

            One story that I found particularly moving was that of Ed Hrivnak of the Air Force his story “War on T.V is Antiseptic”, delved into the medivac missions he undertook. He would pick up the wounded marines and during the flight while he did his best to band-aid their wounds they would confide in him about their fears and he would become more than a medic but a lifeline in which he felt obligated to help them and listen to them.

            From using watching the documentary and reading Sean Huze’s play and reading Tim O’Brien’s book I gained a better understanding on just how much turmoil and psychological damage these soldiers go through., like in a statement from one soldier in Operation Homecoming,” How will tomorrow come if today never ends.” A issue that both this documentary covered and Tim O’Brien’s stories discussed is that America has all but forgotten there is a war going on, TV does not show more than a couple of minutes a day and they do not show the psychological toil that it takes on our soldiers. As a student of psychology myself I realize from reading these stories that human emotions and feelings are the same when in times of war and no matter if it is the Vietnam War or Desert Storm the men who serve will go through and experience similar feelings of loss and pain, it will effect them and it is supposed to.

            No matter the war the soldiers have been trained for one thing, action. They may dread it but they need it so they don’t face the emotions they will feel for being away from home alone in the terrible conditions, so if they are not fighting they can write as a therapeutic release for emotions, as one solider described in the documentary, “I may not be a very good solider, but I may be a good witness.” So thanks to these soldiers and their writing us as a generation along with our future generations we can understand and appreciate just what they went through and at what psychological cost the war came with.

                                                Work Cited

           

            Robbins, Richard E. Operation Homecoming; Writing the Wartime Experience. The Documentary Group.2007.Media

The Ghost Soldiers Analysis

Summary vs. Analysis:  The Ghost Soldiers

            Tim O’Brien’s story The Ghost Soldiers delves into the shooting and ultimate revenge of the character Tim O’Brien in Vietnam. After being shot with the Alpha Company along the Song Tra Bong and receiving sub-par treatment and almost dying of shock due to the new medic Bobby Jorgenson, he is shipped back and stationed at Headquarters Company-S-4. With time to contemplate and stew on what happened, the physical pain, continuing side effects from infection and losing the camaraderie with his troop, he focuses his anger and need for revenge on Bobby Jorgenson.

            The story details the plot of revenge acted out by the character Azar a somewhat over the top and disturbed solider and O’Brien at the Headquarters Company while Bobby Jorgenson was their. It shows the process of anger to forgiveness through psychological torment in both Jorgenson and O’Brien.

            In the story O’Brien makes the following statement:

            “Psychology-that was one thing I knew. You don’t try to scare people in broad daylight. You wait. Because the darkness squeezes you inside yourself, you get cut off from the outside world, the imagination takes over.” (195)

I think psychology played a large role, good or bad for soldiers in Vietnam, but more so for O’Brien. Throughout all his stories he is constantly over analyzing and looking for reason when in reality war is war, what will come of trying to rationalize it? The over thinking of the shooting somewhat altered his conscious state to be unrealistic and boarder line psychotic in behavior, like when he describes the imagination taking over him. The inability to put what happened to him in perspective and just accept that Jorgenson made a mistake he was a rookie and just let it go was not an option to O’Brien anymore and with his psychological attack on Jorgenson he realized just how much he had strayed from reality. “…but the presence of death and danger has a way of bringing you fully awake.” (183)

Review of book: The Psychology of War by Lawrence LeShan 

Tim O'Brien Response

Tim O’Brien Response

I really wanted to be creative for this post, and I decided to attempt writing poetry, after the Poetry of Witness assignment a little light bulb in my head went off and realized that it was not a daunting of a concept as I thought.

What is the point?

The mood is dark and so are the soldiers.

Carrying baggage of equipment and shame,

Shame…brought from not bringing home fellow heroes.

Or shame from trying to avoid going.

Fighting a war of politics and gain

Leaving behind their innocence

Innocence they will never see again,

 Witnessing what they did changed them forever

Coming home empty shell: but heroes none the less.

The endless marches with no purpose besides moving,

But giving them time to contemplate what they have lost.

Left to live with memories of, gore, violence and ghosts.

Still with no idea of the purpose or knowledge as to why they lost their

innocence.

Link below to the time-line and analysis of the Vietnam War.

Vietnam 

Analysis of “Photograph from September 11” by Wislawa Szymborska

Analysis of “Photograph from September 11” by Wislawa    Szymborska

            September 11, 2001 will be a date synonymous to everyone as the day the world as we know it changed for our generation and future generations. In Wislawa Szymborska’s poem ‘Photograph From September 11” she describes the emotions of just one horrific aspect of that day and has the reader remember the feelings they felt watching those poor people fall from the Twin Towers.

            The simplicity of the poem is very engaging in that it is an event that everyone has a memory of in our generation, such as I am sure poetry wrote about the Vietnam War and World War II would have been a strong memory for people in those times. What I found appealing about the poem was that out of all the terrible events of that day she focused the poem on just one aspect of that day, and the one aspect people steered away from talking about. The images of people jumping from the World Trade Towers in New York was an image that everyone saw when they turned on their television that day and it was such a horrific thing to see that it really is one that no one will ever forget. Wislawa’s poem is so moving that it takes the person reading back to that day, her description of watching them fall and her narrative of what they must have been thinking during that fall.

            I felt Szymborska was saying the images from television and photographs taken off these poor people falling has some how immortalized them in time. That they will remain that way, falling through the air stuck for eternity. The following lines I think describe this: 

“The photograph halted them in life,

and now keeps them   

above the earth toward the earth.” (4-6)

The interpretation and overall tone of the poem suggests that we as a society halted that day and we became like the people in the fall, halted in time on that day for eternity. From her description of the fall it was that the amount of time elapsed during the fall may have been short in reality but to them must have felt like an eternity to them and us watching:

“There’s enough time

for hair to come loose,

for keys and coins

to fall from pockets.” (10-13)

 With time to see the earth below them approaching and for personal possessions to come loose which I thought could be a metaphor for them being stripped of personal possession to be bare and exposed to everyone and powerless to prevent it, which in a way was how we were as a western culture that day. During that fall the day to day feelings of how we look to others and our personal dignity and opinions of others play such an important role, but that day stripped everyone of that people found solace and peace in the arms of total strangers; everyone felt the same pain yet no one could describe it or hide from it.

I was not living in America on that dreadful day but the emotions of that day were felt by everyone world wide, and that is why I think this poem touched me as it took me back to home in Australia. Remembering turning on the television and that image of people falling being the first thing we saw and just the shock of it is something I will never forget. I believe that was Szymborska’s purpose with this poem, so we don’t forget what happened and to just take a moment and try to just wrap your mind around what they must have felt during that fall.

I thought the final lines of the poem were very touching and she shows her own feelings of hopelessness even as she writes the poem:

“I can do only two things for them—

describe this flight

and not add a last line.”(17- 19 )

From these last lines I feel she is trying to pay respect without describing how it ultimately ended for them. Like many that day her use of desperation in her words, mirrors how we felt, there was nothing we could do or say that was going to make the situation change or relieve the pain for the families who had lost loved ones. The use of the word “flight” is interesting; could it possible our (as in Western culture) flight of the end of feelings of being an impervious society?  I found ‘Photograph From September 11’ touching and relative to the times of turmoil we are in right now as a country and for this to be wrote by a fellow non-American I found I could relate better as I know how much it not only affected Americans on that day but everyone world wide felt the same loss, pain and heartache. As Wislawa says “They’re still within air’s reach” (14), those images will stay within reach to us for us to remember what happened that day and the lives lost but also remind us we are not invulnerable.

Work cited

Szymborska, Wislawa, “Photograph from September 11” from Monologue of a Dog. 2005. Sep 12.2010.Web.www.poetryfoundation.org

 Photograph from September 11, Wislawa Szymborska

The Sand Storm: Stories from the Front by Sean Huze

Is it worth the sacrifice?          

            After reading Sean Huze’s play “The Sand Storm: Stories from the Front” I can not think of another piece of writing that has given me such a roller coaster of emotions. Reading a piece of literature such as this on a topic so relevant and sensitive to the American society, I think gives me more of a unique position as I can be a little more open minded with it since not having as many preconceived notions on the conflict and politics behind it as most Americans were subjected to after 9/11.

To be honest I did have to read the play twice, the first time to make a list of all the military jargon, so I could look up the meaning of all the acronyms. Never being exposed to any military talk prior I genuinely wanted to learn, so I could easily understand what Sean Huze was trying to convey to his play. After familiarizing myself with the lingo, I proceeded to re-read the play. The second time made the story even more addicting and engrossing than the first.

The rawness and “in your face “ brutality of the story was a fact that we as “civilians” rarely experience first hand, but this story makes one  think you are right there with the marines. Huze expressed just how all the men in his company find their experiences from Iraq, when asked to talk about them quite hazy or a blur. I could not help but ponder if this were due to, if they got down to the brass tacks of what happened to them and how it made them feel and still does then it would be just too much for them to take. He describes the climate and living conditions of Iraq in such vivid detail that I can almost feel the sweat dropping down my face, “I felt like a chicken pot pie in a microwave.” (Huze 7)

Each war in our history has always had a similar tale in that we are sending our children to fight a gown-up or political agenda war. So this certainly hits home when one reads "The Sand Storm".  You realize that the oldest of the outfit is just 27 years old, and the youngest just 18, and these poor young men/children have to spend the rest of their life with memories and mental images.

The war on terror has been and will continue to be a political hot button issue. Sean Huze gives the view from the marines themselves, stripped of all political agenda and gain. The play makes comments and references to politicians and outspoken activists, such as Michael Moore.

Huze quotes in his play a now famous speech made by President George W. Bush, “The question we need to ask ourselves, ‘Is the sacrifice worth it?’” (22). This left me thinking after reading that, if you asked these marines when they returned if they thought the sacrifice was worth it. What would they say?  More importantly ask the wives, mothers, fathers and children of the brave who never came home; did they think the sacrifice of their loved one was worth it?

The following link is to the address given by President George W. Bush to a joint session of congress on the 9/11 attacks:President George W. Bush speech

Rite of Passage & The Colonel

Rite of Passage & The Colonel

The two poems I choice to study from the “Poetry of witness” list was first Sharon Olds, Rites of Passage, and the second were Carolyn Forche`, The Colonel. I find it hard to get some connection to a poem I read and often have to read them several times. I find I struggle with what the author is trying to portray.
I connected to Rites of Passage solely due to it reminds me of when my daughters have their annual birthday slumber parties. The way Sharon Olds describes the child full banter back and forth between them is not only on point but funny like she describes in the following lines: “……… they stand around jostling, jockeying for place, small fights breaking out and calming.” (5-7), having seen first hand how little kids interact and a pack like mentality develops within them when together in a party setting, I think she captures that well in her poem. Her description of the little boys and the correlation between them and Army Generals was terrifically funny: “they relax and get down to playing war, celebrating my son’s life.” (25-26). It was amusing to see that little boys are just the same as young girls at birthday parties just minus the “bling” and make-up.
The following poem I read and also had the most tribulations with was Carolyn Forche`- The Colonel. The gruesome details and descriptions did not bother me such as “He spilled many human ears on the table. They were like dried peach halves.” (22-23), I think her bare bones description of such an event made it somehow more believable. I guess what or who this guy was I had most problems with understanding, obviously his house was like any other but, he was far from normal, from the description of the wife as a “maid” and the serving of the mango's and salt I believe this is a house in Mexico and a home of a member of the Mexican Cartel. So I guess I'm left asking myself are these visitors at the table guests or his next targets for his brutality?
The poem begins with; “What you have heard is true. I was in his house.” (1), this man must have been a well known drug lord of sorts and the one thing that struck me the most was how her use of description could undoubtedly make anyone think your are sat at that table with them. Almost as if you also had that experience, wonderfully wrote, and I think I will certainly look into more of her poetry.


Work cited

Olds,Sharon,“Rites of Passage” from Strike Sparks, Selected Poems 1980-2002. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.

Forche`,Carolyn,“The Colonel” from The Country Between us.Forche,Carolyn, 1978.

Link to another poem by Carolyn Forche`:
The Visitor by Carolyn Forche`

Hamil Response

Response to Sam Hammil’s Essay

It is obvious from reading this essay Sam Hammil had far from a picture perfect childhood and this has evidently clouded his ideas of society and the human race. A social activist especially against the Vietnam War as half of the world was in that time, he turned to poetry as a release and a way to communicate to his audience of readers, teaching at different institutions from schools to prisons expressing the need for people to communicate through words not war.

A Poet’s work: The other side of Poetry (1990) was an essay he wrote about he feels as a society we are communicating less and are destroying our self with violence. Ultimately we choice what we hear and we choice what we want to believe and what we perceive as reality. He makes note that “writing is a form of human communication expressing ideas…” this is true as it is often easier for people to communicate and express themselves on paper then having to look someone in the eye. We don’t fear we will say the wrong thing when we commit it to paper. Expression will flow easier without the threat of verbal reprimand and disagreement.

He touches on the concept of nature vs. nurture in a round-about way, every culture not just American accept violence as a “norm” to a certain extent, we are the only species on this planet that kills each other without a purpose or a fundamental need for survival, could this be why we are at the top of the food chain? A good way to judge ourselves as a society is to just look at what women are taught in self-defense classes, if you are being attacked by a man never cry out rape but cry out fire instead. This is a sad state of affairs that this is what our society has resorted to, no one is willing to help a “fellow man” but is more than happy to stand by and watch a building burn to the ground.

Poetry like creative writing is a way to express pain, happiness, sorrow and any other emotion, as Hammil describes, poetry is more frowned upon in society than a essay or novel but when broken down the concept and point being portrayed by the author is no different. He quotes Gary Snyder as saying “I write to find out what’s on my mind”; I also do the same and find the process of writing very therapeutic. Now Poetry may not be a “physical touch” parse but it is a touch none the less and can create a wealth of emotion in the reader.

Hammil goes into depth about war, military and what we are becoming as a human race, I feel we reap what we sew and our children will learn by example. The beauty of the human race is that we are all different and some will fight with words and some with violence we just have to hope that it all balances out in the end. Children go to war because they feel and are raised to believe that it is their duty to their country, yet like the Vietnam war they went not really knowing the purpose for it or why they were even their. I found it amusing in a way he refers to army recruiters as “recruiters for the business of death”, there is a need for a military if only to maintain peace. I may not personally see the need for all the wars or our participation in them, yet the need for a military presence is still there. Hammil to me seemed a little narrow minded in that sense and not as open minded to the concept of maintaining order in society for our own sake.

 One aspect in the essay I agreed with is that not all poets are good, moral people, take Kenneth “mad dog” McKenna, the serial killer who wrote and published poetry, so does that make the poems not really poetry in the sense of the word because it was written by a monster? But is that not what Hammil wants? He believes that we should communicate through poetry not violence, but in my opinion any poetry written by a serial killer would be devoid of any aesthetic value so to call it “poetry” is an offense to poets everywhere. I give respect to poets such as Edgar Alan Poe and Emily Dickinson who wrote some poetry focusing on the darker side of life but writing about being a killer and being one are two different things.

Below you can find a link to Kenneth "mad dog" McKenna's poem "Beneath the blood red moon", so you can judge for yourself if it has any value as "poetry"

Kenneth McKenna Poem

Poetry

I am almost 100% the person who gets shivers down their back at the thought of reading poetry, to be honest I'm not really sure why as i love reading and have a wide range of interest's in the type of literature i do read. Since i was young and was given poetry to read in school i always had the tendency to lose patients with it, looking for the hidden meanings, am i interrupting this as the author intended? Why am i not getting this?
I think what has always bothered me the most is the vagueness to it all, why not just say what you mean ? I know, i know that's not the point and i am going to try my hardest this week to focus on these poems and hopefully with the help of all you guys the concept may finally click in this head of mine.
My daughters are big fans of Shel Silverstein, i used to read the poems to them when they were small and they giggled at most of them, i find it amazing that he can connect so well to children through his poems maybe because kids have no preconceived notations on poetry at that age.One poem i do "get" so to speak and i am sure it is just because this is an area of interest i will be studying is a poem by Emily Dickinson called "One need not be a Chamber-to be Haunted", i have posted it below but this deals with the hidden fascination that everyone has about the socially unacceptable(murder & death), in our minds we have all contemplated and imagined the unimaginable, but in this poem Dickinson is able to express in words what most people could never say out load.

 "One need not be a Chamber-to be Haunted"

One need not be a Chamber-to be Haunted-
One need not be a House-
The Brain has Corridors-surpassing
Material Place-Far safer, of a Midnight Meeting
External Ghost
Than its interior Confronting-
That Cooler Host.Far safer, through an Abbey gallop,
The Stones a'chase-
Than Unarmed, one's a'self encounter-
In lonesome Place-Ourself behind ourself, concealed-
Should startle most-
Assassin hid in our Apartment
Be Horror's least.The Body-borrows a Revolver-
He bolts the Door-
O'erlooking a superior spectre-
Or More-



But here is my daughters favorite poem by Shel Silverstein, after reading this may be you will understand why they giggle all the time at them :)

Standing Is Stupid by Shel Silverstein
Standing is stupid,
Crawling's a curse,
Skipping is silly,
Walking is worse.
Hopping is hopeless,
Jumping's a chore,
Sitting is senseless,
Leaning's a bore.
Running's ridiculous,
Jogging's insane-
Guess I'll go upstairs and
Lie down again.

Here's a link to more of his poems, great fun if you have kids or are a big kid at heart

.shelsilverstein poems

Nabokov, "Good Readers and Good Writers

I found Nabokov’s opinion on what makes a good reader to be fairly accurate, one of the more important points  raised is that generalization is just that and should be appreciated in context with what the author is trying to portray in their writing. I agree reading with an open mind and not a pre-conceived notion of what to expect, just judge, reflect and take from it what you will after reading the work in its entirety. A good writer like Nabokov describes is someone who can deceive and mesmerize you with their storytelling, and the ability they have to draw you into the story has always amazed me.

                A novel is just that, a story; you should not take what you read as “gospel”, just appreciate the way it was wrote and how wonderfully descriptive the author may have been, so you can then yourself imagine and fantasize what it would be like if what the author was describing was the case in real life.  One aspect Nabokov brought up when discussing what a reader should be to be a good reader in which I did not agree with was that novels that are made into movies; his students had suggested that a good reader should see the movie of the novel read, in my opinion very rarely are the movies as good as the book, the story and characters seem to lose something in translation and I don’t seem to embrace the story as I do when I read it. I find myself thinking while watching the movie “that’s not what I pictured they looked like” or “I pictured the scenery different”. The movie is someone else’s interpretation of the story not yours and can and always seems to be in my case a disappointment.

                I do consider myself a good reader and enjoy a story that can give me a release from reality and can keep be thinking long after I have finished the book. I try to read many styles of writing, I enjoy some more than others, epically crime novels I find myself guessing along with the characters as to “who did it?”, but one novel I found always has been debating to myself and questioning reality after reading is “The Sparrow” by Mary Doria Russell, this borders on science fiction but raises so many questions about religion, morality and the unknown which are relevant in reality. I have attached a link below to a review of the novel for you to check out, enjoy.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Hello -- my video for Eng 102

Paris & Charli

Hi Eng 102, after much confusion on my part alone, i got this blogger concept under control i think lol

Here's my welcome video enjoy or laugh, either or.

The pic above is of my girls.
Sarah