Barbie Doll by Piercy

This poem is about a girl who was made fun of because she did not fit the mold that society had created for women. It shows how women were objectified because they were expected to become like a "barbie doll" in order to be acceptable as individuals. The only thing that was supposed to matter to women was how they looked. No one cared if you were intelligent, they just wanted you to be pretty. The poem portrays the struggle women go through and ultimately how many women lost sight of who the really were just to please society. In the end the girl cuts off her nose and legs because people made fun of her. In doing so she killed herself, which an be taken literally or metaphorically. Perhaps she actually died because she would have bled to death, or maybe it was just as if she had died because she was no longer living the life she desired for herself. Either way this poem shows that women need to believe in themselves and not give in to the worlds ideals of beauty. 

Digging by Heaney

I loved this poem. As I was reading it I thought about Willy Loman at the end of Death of a Salesman when he was planting in his yard. Digging was pretty straight forward. The man in the house is looking down at his father and thinking about how his father and his father's father etc. have all been digging for a living. The man in the window wants to be a writer and use his pen instead of a spade for a living. This reminded me of how Biff couldn't become what his father wanted and decided to choose his own path. The takeaway point I got from the poem was that everyone should stay true to themselves and pursue what they love to do.

Church Going by Larkin

Before I read this poem I thought I knew for certain what it would be about. In my mind I thought it would be about a family that attends church regularly and just describe their personal experience going to church. I had to revise that quite a bit actually because I was not even close! It was about a guy that stops into churches every now and then and he can't explain why. As he is in the church he wonders what will become of the church in the long run. In my perspective I think he is an atheist and is sort of just waiting for the world to realize he is right. At the beginning of the poem it seems like he at least respects the church because he walks in cautiously so as not to disturb anything that might be happening. As the poem progresses I think his true feeling comes out because he starts saying how eventually no one will know what the point of church is. He even says that he doesn't know what the "barn" is for. Religion is becoming quite diverse and a lot of people are even leaving religion altogether. This poem reminds me that we need to let people believe in what they want and respect others viewpoints as well.

Bartleby The Scrivener by Melville

Bartleby the scrivener was an entertaining read. I found Bartleby to be a delight because he challenged the lawyer. His actions were like no one who had ever worked for the lawyer before. The lawyer was used to getting everything he asked for from his employees and Bartleby changed that. The fact that Bartleby replied that he would "prefer not to" to almost every request astounded the lawyer. As I began to analyze the story further for my paper I realized that Bartleby acts much like our unconscious. We can't tell our unconscious what to do, and we have no idea what is stored within our unconscious. The lawyer has no success in getting Bartleby to cooperate with even the simplest of office tasks and he doesn't really learn anything about Bartleby either. Freud believed that our unconscious has some influence in maintaining balance within the structure of our minds. So the fact that Bartleby is introduced into this story might suggest that the lawyer is having issues balancing his mental actions. The lawyer is overwhelmed dealing with Nippers and Turkey who both have their own personal inefficiencies. Bartleby seems like the perfect solution; however, just as we can't influence our unconscious mind, the lawyer is unable to bend Bartleby to his will. Overall, Bartleby causes the lawyer to question himself and perhaps that is just what the lawyer needed in order to remain sane.

Death of a Saleman by Miller

Death of a Salesman was an interesting play. As I read it I had a sort of commentary going on in my head sort of like "Come on Happy, stop pretending everything is okay right now. You are getting on my nerves!". That is just one example, there are plenty more where that came from. My feelings toward Linda go back and forth. Sometimes I feel sorry for her because she has so much to deal with, but then she also irritates me when she tries to blame her sons for the way their father has turned out. In  my opinion Willy is completely responsible for his own madness because he was the one who tried to push his own ideals and standards onto his sons without even considering whether or not they wanted to follow in their fathers footsteps. Biff was by far my favorite character. He is the only one who seems to realize there is a serious issue and it needs to be dealt with not just pushed aside. Linda clearly ignores the problem because she leaves the pipe down in the basement, leaving Biff to be the responsible one to go and get it. Happy is constantly lying and tries to convince Biff to lie as well when they meet with their father for dinner. Biff refuses to mask the truth because he doesn't want to keep pretending things are fine anymore. By the end of the play the only character I was not completely fed up with was Biff. I never thought I would get so involved with characters in a play I had never read before! Even though I went through a bit of emotional turmoil from the characters, it was an pleasurable read overall.

Hamlet by Shakespeare

I have never read Hamlet before this class so I was quite excited to read it for the first time. I didn't read any of it until after I watched the movie in class and so as I was reading I picked up on some aspects of the film that were different than the play itself. As I was reading I would visualize the parts of the film that coincided with the section I was reading. With how little description there is in the text about what the set looks like, I was very interested in how the film producers decided to split different scenes. In the written version scenes tend to run into each other. One person will leave and another will enter to continue the story. One point that I really noticed this division was in act II. In the book Polonius informs the King and Queen that he believes Hamlet is mad because he loves Ophelia. After that Hamlet enters reading a book and Polonius begins to ask him what he is reading. In the movie these two scenes take place in different places though. So as I was reading it I was constantly comparing how the movie compared with the book. After reading the book, I was impressed with how well they did construct the film. I loved the movie, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the play as well. Realizing how much has to be assumed from the play and how many interpretations there can be made from the play I am interested in watching other versions of Hamlet to see how other films portray the play.

The Lady with the Dog by Chekhov

I have come across this selection before and I enjoyed re-reading it for this class. I find it to be a pretty enjoyable read. The narrator, Gurov, is an interesting character. He sees women as inferior to men, yet he can't help being amused by their company. He almost seems ignorant when it comes to emotions with women because he doesn't seem to understand the struggles Anna is going through due to their affair, in fact he even says her reaction bores him! However, something must have changed his mind at least a little bit because once Anna is gone Gurov realizes something is missing from his life, that missing piece being love. This love between Gurov and Anna is like a forbidden love because they are both married already and so the idea of them being together is scandalous. They don't let that stop them and the story ends leaving us to believe that they are going to figure out a way to be with each other forever. Another aspect I would like to mention is the color grey that continually pops up throughout the story. Particularly at the end he realizes that his hair has gone grey. In my mind it symbolizes the fact that Gurov and Anna are done pretending, they are going to let go of their old lives and start a new one in which they are free to love each other openly. Then again they don't have the power to turn back time and live a whole other lifetime, so I feel it could also symbolize their previous love life dying with them and they will love each other beyond death.

My Papa's Waltz by Roethke

For this particular poem I made a prediction of what I thought the poem would be about before I read it. In my mind I thought it would be about a father who had danced with his daughter for the last time before he passed away. I don't know if any of you know the song "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman but that is also one of the things that came to my mind before I read the poem. It turns out that it was not what I had expected it to be. For one thing, it turned out to be a father and son, not a daughter, dancing. I do feel like they were attempting to dance with each other, but the father is clearly drunk and not able to concentrate on what he is doing. The only snippet of the mother we get is that she is frowning, clearly a sign of disapproval that the father has been drinking. It is quite unfortunate that the family has to deal with the father in this state, because he is supposed to be the one that protects them from anything. For me this is one of those things that just make you question how anyone could do that to their family. Why is it so important to drink? The only thing it does is tear families apart. Something as simple as waltzing with his son is extremely difficult, and probably not even that enjoyable anymore for his son, because the father has chosen to drink. Again I feel an important aspect of the story to take away from reading would be not to take anything for granted. The husband had a wonderful family that he was pushing aside whether he realized it or not. No one should ever have to deal with a situation like that, and my hope would be that people would realize how good they have things before they go and let things get out of control. Definitely a poem worth reading, not at all what I expected, but I enjoyed it just the same.

I wandered lonely as a cloud by Wordsworth

This was my favorite selection of poetry that we have read for this class so far. I was able to read it fairly easily and understood it pretty well too. For me the poem is a reminder that we need to stop and smell the roses every now and then. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our routines that we miss opportunities that could have been extremely beneficial to us had we payed attention to them. People go through their lives with such a strict focus that all they can see is themselves and the goal they are trying to reach. They miss the beauty of the small things in life, such as nature in this poem. When we do come across these rare moments in our life we do not always understand what their purpose is. Just as the poem points out that they "Little thought What wealth the show to me had brought" (459). Sometimes we do not realize what we had until it is gone. The take away point of the poem for me is not to take anything for granted. Appreciate everything you have, because you never know how long it will last.

A&P by Updike

This short story was my favorite. I found the story to be somewhat comical in a sense. The narrator gets right to the main attraction of the story in the first sentence saying "In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits" (430). I mean it is a little creepy that he and his fellow store clerk just stare at the girls as they wander through the store, but the way they do it is quite funny. They are so bored in the store that watching the girls becomes a sort of game for the narrator, he even compares it to a game of pinball trying to figure out which aisle they will come down next! The second part of the story the narrator gets the chance to check them out, in more ways than one, when they come to the counter. When the manager embarrasses the girls for wearing bathing suits in the store, the narrator makes a failed attempt at heroism by quitting as the girls are leaving the store. He is hoping that the girls will notice him and be so appreciative of his actions, when in reality they could care less what he decides to do. Part of me wants to feel sorry for him because he did quit his job and really has nothing to show for it, but I also feel like he should have known better than that. I enjoyed the story and found it very pleasant to read overall. If I had to pick one thing to take away from this story it would be to stand up for what I feel is right, but go about it in a smart way.

Cathedral by Carver

This short story has been my second favorite selection that we have read for this class thus far. When I saw the title I was expecting the content of the story to be more centered on religion, so it was interesting to find out otherwise. Because the title of the story is "Cathedral" I feel as though that is were we are supposed to find some sort of deeper meaning to the story. In my mind it was not just a moment that helped the husband and the blind man bond but also has some significant meaning to the husband particularly. When the husband asks the blind man if he knows anything about Cathedrals one of the facts the blind man knows is that the men who began work never lived to see the Cathedral completed. I found a connection with this when the blind man asked the husband to close his eyes as they finished the drawing. It was sort of like a trust exercise. Just as the men who built actual Cathedrals had to believe they would be completed, so to the husband had to believe their drawing would be completed. The take away point for me in this story was that you can't always be in control. Sometimes you have to trust that other people know best, and that everything will turn out the way that it is supposed to in the end.