Translations

I thought that reading Translations was a nice close to the semester.  I had read a similar story in my English class here freshmen year and I enjoyed Translations just as much as I had enjoyed that story.  I find the name of a place fascinating.  A name can tell you so much about a place and what it  means to the people who live there.  Doing what the British did - taking the Gaellic names of all the Irish cities and towns and hills and mountains and Anglicizing them - I think helped take away part of the charm of Ireland.  Gaellic is a unique language and the English showed little respect for it by just barging in and manipulating the people into changing the name of the place in which they live.  Did they not realize that they were taking away the identity of the Irish people?  Did they know and just not care?  Should the Irish people have tried to do more to stop it?

Power

On Tuesday, we talked about the power in Power during class.  Another example that I came up with was when the police came to take Ama away for killing the panther.  The passage read, "Ama knew they would come.  She is ready for them.  It was part of the bargain all along - or should I call it destiny" (76).  Ama did what she did and she did not back down from it or try to hide from it.  In her own way, I think she created her own power by not running away from the police.  

Short Paper 2

Before I began writing Short Paper 2, I was extremely skeptical about the assignment.  Being an Accounting major, I don't usually have to be too creative.  Most assignments I have have a correct answer and is worked out logically.  So I thought I was going to have a problem being creative.  But once I decided on which of the works I was going to write on and I really thought about what I wanted to add to "The Yellow Wallpaper," I was not as scared of the assignment as I thought I was going to be.  In fact, I have a feeling I am going to enjoy writing it.  I have a lot of ideas as to what happened to the narrator after the story was finished and I am going to enjoy forming those ideas and putting them to paper.

Lucy

I just finished reading the novel Lucy. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It goes fast and I like Jamaica Kincaid's style of writing. She has created an extremely complex character in Lucy herself. Lucy has a lot of emotions boiling up inside her, especially with feelings about her mother and father. I don't particularly think that Lucy had a tough childhood, although she did witness a lot around her that was difficult, such as her father's other women and what her father's childhood did to him. Nevertheless, Lucy seems like an extremely angry person to me. While in America, she continues to lash out and while she may not always tell people what she is thinking, she is certainly not thinking positive thoughts about them. She also develops an odd relationship with Mariah too. She loves and hates Mariah at the same time, just as she feels towards her mother. I feel as though she takes a little bit of her anger at her mother out on Mariah. And I do believe that she does love her mother; in some ways, I think she is just a normal teenage girl taking her anger and confusion at the world out on her mother in order to make herself feel better.

This Blessed House

I found "This Blessed House" to be one of the most interesting readings we have had this semester. I did find it frustrating that the story did not really seem to have much of a point to it and that it also just kind of ended. But at the same time, I found it to be easy reading. I found the contrasting characters of Sanjeev and Twinkle to be especially interesting. Althought it seemed that Sanjeev treated Twinkle as if she was a child at time, I thought that her character was free-spirited and full of life. She did as she pleased without regard to what anyone else thought of her. I thought Sanjeev cared entirely too much what people thought of him and that doing so made him appear on edge all the time. I do believe that having somewhat of a contrasting character between two people is important in any relationship, but the way Sanjeev treated Twinkle made me wonder how much Sanjeev really cared for her or whether he was just listening to the others around him in deciding to marry her.

More O Film Viewing

I was extremely frustrated by the end of the film. I did not find the ending to be very believable. Not only was the plan not very well thought out, there were too many holes that any normal person would have questioned. In real life, I do not believe that Odin would have gone along with it. First of all, deciding to murder someone because you're jealous is not a very good reason, especially since Odin had no real evidence. Second, I feel as though Odin should have been smarter and questioned why Hugo was so interested in helping him. Third, there would have been no way for them to carry out this plan because I do not think that they would have been able to go to the game on their own. Even if they were suspended, they would still have to ride with the rest of the team to the game.

Even though the plan clearly blew up in their faces, I think in the end Hugo still got what he wanted. I think he did probably know that the plan wouldn't have worked. But attention was finally being given to him. People were finally going to be focused on him. And that was his ultimate goal.

O Film Viewing

Right now, we are watching the film O in class. I knew that it was a modern spinoff of Shakespeare's Othello, but I did not realize how close the storyline of the film would follow the plot of Shakespeare's play. Knowing this however, makes the film seem a little silly and outlandish. I don't know too many guys who would give a girl a scarf as a present. I am looking forward to the conclusion of the film. I feel as though it may turn out to be slightly on the ridiculous side and not very realistic.

One thing that I do like about the film though is that you can see how easily Hugo is able to plant a seed of doubt in Odin's mind about Desi and Michael. I like that the film gives a reason for Hugo's behavior (his being on some type of steroid and the trouble he is having with his father). It makes Hugo seem more human. In the play, Iago just seems to be a cold, heartless person. The film gives Hugo more of a life and emotion. It is also easy to see how the fight that Desi and Odin got into when she couldn't find the scarf was a misunderstanding on both of their parts. As a viewer, it is extremely frustrating because I can see where they both think that they are right and that because they are not communicating with each other clearly, they are only making the situation worse and exactly what Hugo wants.