English 1102

[doctorchelsie-blog]

Prompt #10, due 4/17

 We often hear political and news figures talk about immigration, but we rarely see first hand accounts such as in Which Way Home. How did watching the documentary in class inform your feelings or opinions about immigration int the US? Write a 200 word response. 

[daniellebrooks96]

After watching the documentary Which Way Home, my feelings about immigration were altered some. Initially, when I think of illegal immigration and “hopping” the boarder, I would think to myself, “why do they need to do it illegally?” “why can’t they just come to America the right way?”. But this idea and the questions that I had quickly changed. The people in this movie that were trying to cross the border had nothing but good intentions with why they wanted to come to America. It saddened me to see that a lot of the people who went on this treacherous journey were often young children who were trying to come to America so they could either receive a better education or find a job to help support their family back in another country. Often times, the children or people who were trying to cross do not make it because they either get hurt, caught, or even die before they make it to America. It was very sad to see that the families sometimes didn’t even know that their children had left to go to America because the kids chose not to tell them because they were afraid that the parents would say no, but the kids would still go anyways. Overall, my view of immigration and crossing the border altered greatly after watching this movie.

[doctorchelsie-blog]

Prompt #9, due 4/13

By now you should have watched your documentary and begun the research process. Write a 200 word response to your group’s documentary. What do you think the social obstacles presented by your documentary are?

[daniellebrooks96]

After watching the documentary “The Dark Matter of Love” and spending time thinking about it and the context of the movie, I was able to pick up on a few social obstacles. I realized that a lot of psychological aspects play a role in the life of children who are adopted, specifically for those that are adopted later in life. Watching this documentary made me realize that when children have a memory of being somewhere else growing up and then moving to another home and into a new family, plays a huge role in how they will be for the rest of their lives. In this movie, the three children that get adopted into a new family, were all adopted later in life from another country. I feel that language barriers also play a role in being a social obstacle because they are not only moving in with people that they do not know, but also moving in with a family that they cannot understand very well when it comes to communication skills. In situations like this, all they can do is be patient with one another and take time to adjust to their new environment and life that is ahead of them.

[daniellebrooks96]

Reading Response (The Goat or Who is Sylvia?) - Question #2

When I first began reading through the The Goat or Who is Sylvia? I felt that Martin, the father in this story, was a quality man with a great character. Initially, I would have never guesses that the father would be disloyal to his wife, and even his family for that matter. He seemed to treat his wife with respect and the relationship between the two of them seemed to be going well. However, that was not the case. His friendship with Ross seems to be one of a kind and Martin’s best friend for a life time. Martin’s relationship with his son, Billy, seemed to be a little odd but did not make me question anything too much at first. However, as the story progressed and information began to be revealed my opinion about the father quickly began to change. His relationship with the goat completely caught me off guard with the fact that he could even love someone else other than his wife, and then to add to it; “love” a goat more than his wife. After his son found out about this terrible situation the way he responded to it by kissing his father also left me in complete shock with the fact that he wanted his father in that type of way. Overall, my view of the father shifted throughout the story as information was revealed to me.

[doctorchelsie-blog]

If you look at the cover of The Goat or Who is Sylvia? you’ll notice that the subtitle of the play is (Notes Toward a Definition of Tragedy). According to Aristotle, a tragedy is a serious play in which a great character’s hamartia leads him to his downfall. We see this with Martin, an award...

[daniellebrooks96]

As I began to read through the story of The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, a quite uncomfortable and almost awkward feeling came about as I quickly learned about the context of this story. This was definitely an easy read, not hard to understand at all, but the more I learned about it the more strange it made me feel. As I discovered the love that Martin, what appeared to be a happily married man, quickly had for Sylvia, who was not a woman but a goat, confusion began to fill my brain and make me wonder what was going to happen next in the story. Questions that I began to form in my brain consisted of “why did Martin feel that he needed to receive attention from someone else besides his wife?” “Had Stevie, his wife, and himself been having a rough time with their marriage?” All types of questions continued to fill my mind and then all of a sudden just when you think the story couldn’t get any stranger, it takes a turn for the weirdest. Stevie and Martin’s emotional teenage son begins talking to his father about the situation and suddenly kisses his father. Then I begin to question so much more about this situation more so than I did about the goat situation. The story continued to go on and I continued to feel a sense of discomfort and a little awkward throughout the entire story.

[daniellebrooks96]

Prompt #6

After living in Milledgeville for not even a full year yet, I can say that there are still similarities in this town today to how it was during Flannery O'Connor's time. Milledgeville is a small town, with a somewhat close community but does not receive a lot of positive attention. During O'Connor's time, she expresses through her readings that she saw a lot of racism and poverty stricken areas. With this, I can sadly agree that there are still areas in Milledgeville that are quite similar. I would love to say that racism is no longer an issue in this area of the south, but it still exists. However, I do feel that the unemployment rate has gone down some with the result that some people have been able to find steady jobs around the area in Milledgeville. Many people that grew up here and continue to live here do have an influence on people that move here or continue to grow up here because their views of others and the town impact a lot more people than they may realize. Overall, I feel that Milledgeville is continuing in the right direction to make the town a better, more positive location in Georgia, but still has many years to come before everyone will be able to completely overlook racism.

[daniellebrooks96]

Prompt #5

After spending time discussing the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Flannery O’Connor’s quote in class, I found a different meaning behind the quote as well as the story itself. When I read the story on my own, I did not make a huge connection on the fact that during this time, racism was quite a big issue. African Americans were not treated right at all during the time period of this story and I feel that that is how O’Connor connects her quote to her readers with the story. When O’Connor wrote this story, she meant for her readers to understand how African Americans were treated and wanted to make sure that we all understood that. In her quote she says that “most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal.” Stating this, she clearly meant for her reader’s to understand that in the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the grandmother did not think anything bad of what she about African American’s and how they were viewed in a negative way. In the grandmother’s eyes and anyone’s eyes for that matter, they did not know any better and that they were treating other people in a bad way.

[daniellebrooks96]

Close Reading on "Bitch"

No matter what you read throughout life, there will always be more than one meaning behind what you have read. Many people interpret stories, poems, and songs all in different ways but there is really no one right or wrong meaning behind these topics. After reading the poem entitled “Bitch” more than once, I found that this poem has a deeper meaning than many would think if they were simply reading it for “enjoyment”.

As I read through this poem, I realized that a woman is not fully over her what appears to be her ex-husband. The poem starts off by saying, “now when he and I meet, after all this years, I say to the bitch inside of me, don’t start growling.” This leads me to believe that for some reason this woman has to see her ex husband after a long period of time going without seeing him. This brings back feelings and emotions to the woman that she has not felt in a long time. Initially, she tells herself, or the “bitch” inside of her that she must not get mad at him and keep calm throughout their encounter with each other. However, after a short time being with him again, she finds herself reminiscing over the “good” and “fun” times that they used to have when they were still together. It seems to me that she starts to second guess herself and question that maybe she should have just over looked their differences when they were together and should have just worked things out. However, the poem ends by her remembering why they separated and she says “goodbye! Goodbye! Nice to have seen you again.”

[daniellebrooks96]

Response to "Try"- Colbie Caillat

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/colbiecaillat/try.html

One of my favorite songs right now is Colbie Caillat’s song called “Try”. The song has such a deep and incredible meaning to it focusing on the topic of how women view themselves. In today’s word many of us, normally including myself, feel as if we have to look a certain way anytime we go somewhere normally consisting of having our hair and makeup “done’. We know that the world views us a certain way and we typically want to try our best to meet the standards that the world has of how woman should look. Colbie’s song talk about how women get up in the morning, get dressed, and put makeup on to try and cover up any flaws that we feel that we have. The music video to this song shows all different size and age women taking off their makeup and showing that they are okay with the way that they look. I believe that at the end of the day, the way that we feel about ourselves and our image is one of the most important things because self-confidence is very important to be happy with yourself and not worry too much about how others view you.

[daniellebrooks96]

[daniellebrooks96]

Reading response to "the revolution will not be televised"

After listening to “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” a few times, I began to realize what the song was really about when I paid attention to the lyrics. The song spoke to me on a more personal level because a lot of times things will not always come easy to you in life and you will sometimes have to try at them more than once. I feel that this song is talking about how a revolution was beginning to take place during the 60’s and 70’s, and a lot of things were beginning to change and become different. Not everyone agreed with these changes and this led to some disagreements and the changes that were taking place were not necessarily going to be shown for everyone to watch on the television. In life some things are too big to be shown on the tv, and these changes took place at different times for different people. The “song” begins by saying “you will not be able to stay home, brother”, and I think this was meant that if a person wants to see change in the world, then they must be responsible and help me the change or “revolution” that they want to see.

[daniellebrooks96]

Reading Response to "Crack Music"

When I first listened to this song, my initial thought was "when did this song come out?”. I have listened to several other songs by Kanye and I really like a lot of his music. However, right away, I could tell that “Crack Music” was an older song. The tune is kind of catchy but the chorus made me feel a little confused and uncomfortable. I looked up the lyrics to this song and realized that Kanye was using the part “that’s that crack music nigga, that real black music nigga” is comparing the popularity of crack in America to the popularity of hip-hop in America which then made a lot more sense to me. I was able to listen to the song more than once, and I honestly did not like it too much. The repetitiveness and the lack of sensitivity throughout the song made me lose interest in the lyrics. The beat was not terrible, but it was not something I would enjoy listening to on a day-to-day basis. The lyrics definitely had a deeper meaning to the song than I first realized. I was able to learn a lot more about it after looking up the meaning of some of the words to this song.