Grendel Discssion

Grendel's progression throughout John Gardner's novel Grendel is that of an increasingly evil character. During Grendel's childhood, he was innocent and had not killed anyone. Yet, as soon as he started maturing and venturing out of the cave he was in a fight with humans. Although this is a traumatic incident where Grendel was attacked by humans unprovoked it does not excuse Grendel from purposely continuing to kill humans. Later on Grendel had met the wise old sharper that had told a story about Cain and Abel, through the story Grendel had matured , because he had realized that he descends from Cain and is always on the side of evil. After, Grendel has matured he had met a red dragon and had lost his conscience after the meeting with the dragon. The red dragon told Grendel that there was no reason to stop scaring humans and that it is fine to continue to scare them. Through the dragon's words Grendel matured into an evil monster with no conscience. The dragon out a charm on Grendel that made him impossible to injure from normal humans and this had led Grendel to continue his onslaught on the humans without much worry. Grendel started waging war against Hrothgar and the Danes; what started as an accidental confrontation between the monster and the humans soon turned into a war. Even people that were frightened and helpless were killed for sport and pleasure. Grendel ate many humans, but the humans always gave him an upset stomach, which shows that he does not kill humans for food, but for the pleasure of seeing them frightened. When Beowulf and the Geats had come to help the Danes out, Grendel was overjoyed, because he figured that he had more people to kill. Grendel had progressively become more and more evil as he matured, and even killed people on the day of his death. He had died after he had waged his twelfth and final war on the humans. He was descended from Cain, which is very significant, because it signifies that Grendel's cursed by God and inclined to homicide like his ancestor. As he's naturally at odds with Christian civilization, whoever opposes or destroys him would be sanctified. Although Grendel came from evil origins, he was not evil when he was younger, he had progressively turned evil after battling humans and hearing the words of the wise old sharper and the wise old red dragon.

Perseus and Theseus Discussion

I have noticed that in the ancient Greek tales of Perseus and Theseus both the main protagonists had showed clear signs of arrogance and overconfidence. Dictys's brother Polydectes, the king of the island had fallen in love with Danae, but Perseus did not like him and protected his mother from him. Dictys decided to send Perseus away in disgrace, so he devised a plan. His plan was to invite guests and to make them each bring a horse as a gift under the pretext that he was giving them to Hippodamia, the tamer of the horses. Perseus did not bring a horse, but he told Dictys to name a gift that he could bring instead; this action showed Perseus's arrogance since he was very confident that he could bring any gift that Dictys wants. Dictys told him the head of medusa and Perseus agreed. Instead of showing humility and apologizing Perseuses was very overconfident in his abilities and thought that he could easily slay medusa. Though the journey to confront medusa was long and dangerous Persues was very arrogant and continued forth on his adventure. Finally, he cut off medusa's head, a journey that no mortal dreamed of. Without Perseus's arrogance and overconfidence, he would have never undergone the dangerous journey to obtain medusa's head for somebody that he despises. Later on Perseus discovered a savage giant snake that was attacking Ethiopia. Perseus was very confident of his abilities after he managed to cut off Medusa's head, and he decided to battle the monster snake. Although Perseus had beaten the giant snake, he showed clear signs of overconfidence and arrogance, since he did not make any plans or strategies when he considered fighting the snake, instead he immediately begun fighting the snake with no preparation. Without Perseus's overconfidence and arrogance he may have never attacked the giant snake, just like most other men would not at the time.
                    Furthermore, Thesues also showed visible signs of arrogance and overconfidence on his adventures. The King Minos of Crete had his son killed by assassin in Athens., so he demanded his son's assassins, but the king of Athens did not know who the they were, so he gave up Athens to the king of crete. King Minos ordered that in nine-year intervals Athens would send seven courageous youths and seven beautiful maidens to Crete to be devoured by the minotaur. Eventually Theseus volunteered to take the place of one of the youths and went to Crete with no weapons; this action clearly shows his arrogance and overconfidence, because he had signed up to fight a monster that everybody wants to avoid. Furthermore, Theseus had decided to go to Crete bare-handed, even though many youths have died against the minotaur. Theseus eventually saw the minotaur and then he started to fight it; this action clearly showed Theseus's overconfidence since he had no hesitation when he attacked a monster that has killed many humans. Even though he eventually he stabbed the minotaur in the throat with a sword, Theseus's decision to go enter the maze in the first place shows clear signs of overconfidence.

Doll House Discussion

In Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll House the opening and closing scenes helped drive the focus of the play. The opening scene was a description of Nora and Torvald's lavish home. The opening scene of A Doll's House is preceded by a description of a room in the house in which the two main characters, Nora and Torvald live. "A comfortable room, tastefully but not expensively furnished". This description represents the Helmers' place in society. They are middle class, not extremely wealthy, but with enough money to survive comfortably on. Middle class society in Norway in this time was quite patriarchal. There were strict social edicts about a woman being a good wife and mother. Women who tried to find independence, or were forced to work like Nora's best friend Mrs Linde, were often seen as lesser beings. This first setting description sets the scene for the entire play and supports the controversial main theme of the play, Nora's rebellion against this rigid society in her final decision to leave her husband when she realizes she needs to make something of herself and find independence. The closing scene of Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll House ends with Nora leaving Torvald and slamming the door shut when she leaves the doll house. The closing scene of A Doll House is significant, because it ends the false reality that is the doll house. Nora and her husband Torvald's life together was false and was never serious. Torvald only loved the idea of loving Nora and he never treated her seriously. He treated Nora as if she was an child that did not know any better. After Nora finally had a serious talk with her husband of eight years, she realized that she was living in a false reality for all these years. She was living in a doll house that masked reality. After Nora decides that she want to get away from the doll house, she ends her fantasy world with a quick slam of the door, which ended Nora and Torvald's false marriage. The closing scene left the readers uncertain about Nora's fate as she is leaving her husband and children without any money or with any job lined up for her. Furthermore, Nora does not even have a home that she can stay in, which makes the closing scene full of questions about her fate. But, since Nora is trying to escape the doll house and is trying to grow up, she potentially has an optimistic future.

                                                                                                      

A Dolls house discussion

In Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House Nora's actions shows that she is very immature. When Kristine tells Nora about her troubles, Nora immediately brags about Torvald's new promotion, her wonderful kids, and her fantastic life; this shows that Nora is an inconsiderate person. Rather than worry about her long time friend that is going through a rough time, Nora is happy and proud while boasting about how nice her life is. Furthermore, Nora played with Dr.Rank's feelings for a long time. She was frequently alone with him and eventually Dr.Rank confessed his love for Nora, but Nora immediately crushed his feelings. Nora treated Dr.Rank as a toy and was very inconsiderate towards him, which showed that she was very immature and insensitive. Also, Nora treated her children like dolls. She allowed the nanny to take care of them, but liked to play with them and dress them up like dolls. Basically she let the nanny raise the children and only used the children as a source of entertainment; this showed a lack of responsibility on Nora's part and makes her seem very immature. In addition, Nora left her long time husband Torvald after he yelled at her for the first time. Although Nora believes that her marriage was a sham, Torvald was willing to make changes and make compromises with her. Torvald clearly demonstrated his love for Nora by even begging her to stay and act as only a sister to him. Although Torvald tried his best to convince Nora that he will change, Nora left her children and her long time husband in a heartbeat. Nora's selfish actions make her seem very immature, due to the abandonment of her loving husband and her young innocent children.

I think that Henrik Ibsen portrayed Torvald as an innconsiderate person. When Nora spends any money, Torvald acts like she is his pet. Torvald calls her his songbird that likes to spend his money and even parents his wife. Instead of treating her with respect and dignity he continued to treat Nora as a child, which showed that he is very inconsiderate. Furthermore, even though Torvald has known Krogstad for years he wants to fire him, since Krogstad calls him by his fist name in front of everybody. This selfish reason to fire someone is very inconsiderate, considering that someone's life is on the line and that his wife begged him not to fire Krogstad. Although Torfvald has known Krogstad since they were both in the same law school, he easily fired Krogstad over a very petty reason, which shows that his is an inconsiderate person.

Short Story essay Analysis

I did my short story analysis on Margaret Atwood's short story Hairball. When I turned in my essay, the format of the essay was messed up in turnitin.com. As a result, my MLA format was complete destroyed, and it made my essay very hard to follow. That contributed quit a bit for my bad grade in the essay. Also, my transition words were very plain and quite weak. My essay also included some incorrect grammar. I lacked a few colons and commas at the correct place. My periods were not inside the quotations. Occasionally I did not use the present tense when I should have. I was often repetitive in my essay, which reduced the overall point of my essay. I basically said the same thing over and over again, which made me lose the direction of where the essay will head, and I could not think of anything new to add to the essay. I did not support my claims very well, so my essay severely lacked adequate support to make my points stronger. Also, my analysis were very short and were very plain and weak. My quotations were too long and not to the point. I could have included better vocabulary to improve my short story analysis. Also, I could have improved the essay by including better transition words. I could have improved my essay by double checking turnitin.com and making sure they did not ruin my MLA format. My grammar could have been improved for this essay to get a higher grade. More specifically I could have used commas and colons correctly and placed my periods inside the quotation marks. The short story analysis could have been improved by using present tense at the appropriate times instead of past tense. Furthermore, I could have been much less repetitive in my short story analysis to make my points more concise, clearer, and stronger. The essay could have included stronger transition words. My support in the body paragraphs could have been longer and stronger to make help prove my thesis. I could have made stronger connections between my points to not confuse my audience, which may have raised my grade. My essay included too much passive voice at times, and would have benefited greatly through increased use of active voice. I was not clear when portraying my logic, which made my short story analysis hard to read. Overall I think that my analysis of Margaret Atwood's short story Hairball could have been greatly improved through better grammar, analysis, and stronger support for my thesis.

All the King's Men Discussion Continued

 

In Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, I noticed that many of the characters transformed from nice honest people into cruel and heartless people as time went on. Jack Burden is one of the people that transformed from a nice and honest man into an inconsiderate cruel guy. He was originally a nice sweet kid that loved his mother, but as time went on he started betraying the people that took care of him. Jack Burden was tasked with the burden of finding useful information that Willie Stark could use to blackmail Judge Irwin. The judge helped take care of Jack Burden and always treated him nicely. Yet instead of lying to Stark and telling him that there was no "dirt" on the judge, Jack Burden tried his hardest to find out anything wrong that the judge did in the past. Jack Burden demonstrated that he has changed into a "backstabber" as time went on. Throughout All the King's Men, Willie Stark's actions demonstrated his transformation from a caring and nice guy into a cruel and corrupt man. Originally Willie Stark was a good person, which was seen when he tried to change which company constructed the school so that the state could save costs. Also, Stark tried to change the construction company to prevent the governor from using nepotism to make his cousin's company be responsible for the construction of the school. Furthermore, Willie Stark truly cared about the common person at the start of his political ambitions, but he was eventually corrupted and lost his kind-hearted intentions. Once Willie Stark had gotten elected as governor, he started trying to "find dirt" on people and had started cheating on his wife without other women. He started blackmailing other politicians to get his way with people and made them conform to his ideas and goals. Willie Stark prevented his own impeachment by insuring that all of his opponents would do as he said through the use of blackmail. Even the people that tried to impeach Willie Stark were truly amazed by his actions. Also, Willie Stark was a unfaithful man and cheated on his wife Lucy with Sadie Burke. All of these corrupt actions turned Willie Stark from an honest kind-hearted man into a corrupt and cruel guy. Furthermore, Cass Mastern also transformed from an innocent an kind man into a "backstabber". Mastern was originally just a youth that was looking for friendship and advice from Duncan Trice. Duncan Trice tried to give good advice to Master and he helped Mastern out frequently. Yet Cass Mastern betrayed his loyal friend Duncan Trice by sleeping with Annabelle Trice.  Mastern's affair with Annabelle Trice had caused Duncan Trice to commit suicide.  Although many of the characters in All the King's Men started off as good people,  they changed into cruel and corrupted people.

All the Kings Men Discussion

In Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, I noticed that as people were trying to become more knowledgeable, they were really portraying their ignorance. Willie Stark studied very hard to become a lawyer and even received the advice of an old lawyer. He spent many hours studying for the bar exam, but when he took the exam he almost started laughing due to the ease of the test. Also, Willie Stark thought that a common negro laborer without much education could pass the exam. Willie Stark's decision to gain enough knowledge to pass the bar exam really demonstrated his ignorance, because he had no idea that the bar exam was so easy that he could have passed it without studying for it. Furthermore, Willie Stark's effort to become a knowledgeable governor really showed his ignorance, because Joe Harrison's men wanted him to run to spilt the votes. By trying to become a governor Willie Stark showed that he was very ignorant in the ways of politics, because he had no idea that Joe Harrison's men were only using Willie Stark for their own purposes and knew that he had no chance at being elected governor of the state.

Throughout Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men, Willie Stark's actions often made the reader question whether he is a good person or a corrupt man. I think that Wille Stark was a good person that became a corrupt man. Willie Stark was originally a good person, which was seen when Willie Stark tried to change the construction company for the school's construction to save costs and to prevent nepotism. Furthermore, Willie Stark truly cared about the common person at the start of his politacl amnbitions, but he was eventually corrupted and lost his kind-hearted intentions. Once Willie Stark had gotten elected as governor, he started trying to "find dirt" on people and had started cheating on his wife without other women. He started blackmailing other politicians to get his way with people and made them conform to his ideas and goals. Willie Stark prevented his own impeachment by insuring that all of his opponents would do as he said through the use of blackmail. Even the people that tried to impeach Willie Stark were truly amazed by his actions. Also, Willie Stark was a unfaithful man and cheated on his wife Lucy with Sadie Burke. All of these corrupt actions turned Willie Stark from an honest kind-hearted man into a corrupt and cruel guy.

Hairball teeth anaylsis

       Margaret Atwood uses a pattern of repeatedly mentioning teeth in "Hairball". When teeth were mentioned in " Hairball" they usually symbolized curiosity or sparked curiosity. When Kat was in the hospital " Kat too gritted her teeth fiercely. She was terrified, but was also curious. Curiosity has got her through  a lot. " ( 1) In "Hairball", teeth were frequently mentioned often accompanied by curiosity afterwards. Even though Kat felt worried about the surgery, once she started gritting her teeth all she felt was curiosity, which is a very unusual occurrence. the mention of teeth in " Hairball" contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole, because the mention of teeth often ignites a person's curiosity and that caused protagonist Kat to keep her ovarian cyst, due to curiosity.  After the surgery, she had received her ovarian cyst and noticed that it had teeth on it, and she asked the doctor, " Is this abnormal? Kat asked the doctor... Abnormal? No has said carefully, as if breaking the news to a mother about a freakish accident to her newborn." ( 2) Kat's curiosity of the ovarian cyst grew when she noticed that teeth were imbedded within the hairball. Even though Gerald would rather avoid looking at the ovarian cyst and did not want to get into a deep discussion over how the ovarian cyst originated, Kat asked the doctor whether the hairball was unique when she noticed the teeth in the hair ball. Kat's curiosity caused by the teeth in the hairball helps  prove that in " Hairball" teeth often sparked curiosity.  Also, Kat was curious to know whether the ovarian cyst was an unborn child, because of the teeth imbedded within the hairball, and was disappointed when she discovered it was not.  The affects of Kat's curiosity  are shown when the ovarian cyst's teeth helped cause Kat to be curious that the hairball might be an her unborn child, as a result she decided to keep the ovarian cyst, thus dramatically affecting the plot of  "Hairball". Kat had a round face and greet teeth when she was younger, but " By time her face had lost its roundness, through the teeth of course remained." ( 3) Even though Kat's lost her roundness after many years, she still has her great teeth. and this symbolizes that although her looks have changed her curiosity remains the same. The fact that Kat still has her teeth looking like it did when she was young contributes to the meaning of Margaret Atwood's short story " Hairball" shows that even though time may pass and people may look different, their level of curiosity can remain the same even after many years.                                                                                            

Hairball analysis

I have noticed that Margaret Atwood uses a pattern of making character names shorter to demonstrate a change in character idenity.In "Hairball" after Gerald told Kat to get rid of the ovarian cyst, she told him, “Goodbye, Gerald.... She pronounces the name with mockery. It's a negation of him." ( 2)  Kat uses Ger more frequently than Gerald, but uses Gerald when annoyed or disappointed with him. By changing Gerald's name Kat helps change and shape Gerald into whatever type of men she desires. Kat's use of shorter names for Gerald helps contributes to the meaning of the “Hairball" as a whole, because Gerald's personality transforms into the same as Kat's personality, resulting in him taking away Kat's job. Eventually through Gerald's actions Kat decides to abandon her name and change herself. Kat started changing Gerald from when they first met. Originally he'd been Gerald when they first met; it was she who transformed him, first to Gerry, then to Ger. She made him get rid of those sucky pursed-mouthed ties, told him what shoes to wear. (Atwood 4)  Kat made Gerald wear and do whatever she decided by changing his identity.  She changed his identity by changing his name. Kat shortened Gerald into Ger, eventually causing him to become a different person that is cruel and takes Kat's job. The shortening of Gerald's name contributes to the meaning of “Hairball" as a whole by showing that a person's name helps make up the identity of that person and by changing a person's name one can change the person, as seen by Gerald's transformation from a nice ordinary guy into a "sexy" cruel guy that is identical to Kat.  Furthermore, Kat also transforms her own identity by changing her name. When Gerald asked Kat what her name meant she told him, "It's Kat as in KitKat. That's a chocolate bar. Melts in your mouth." (3). Kat originally changed her name from Katherine to Kathy to Kat; " During her childhood she was romanticized Katherine... By high school she'd shred the frills and emerged as a bouncy, round-faced Kathy." ( 4). As Katherine she was a nice and innocent person, but she continuously kept on making her name shorter until it became Kat. Kat's shortened name made her lose a part of herself; this shortens her up to be summed up as just like a simple KitKat that melts and gets ruined as time goes on. She went from Katherine a nice innocent person to a cruel Kat who lost some part of herself. The shortening of Kat's name contributes to the meaning of "Hairball" as a whole, because it shows that Kat loses more and more of herself as her name gets shorter, and eventually leaving her with no name and blank state.

Lit blog 10/1/12

In the Anne Tyler's short story Teenage Wasteland Donny gets kicked out of his high school and runs away from home. Some people think that it is his mother Daisy's fault that her son Donny gets kicked out of his school and runs away from their home.  I personally do not think that Daisy is entirely to blame for Donny's bad behavior; I think that its a combination of Daisy, Donny, and Cal's faults that contributed to Donny's reckless actions. Daisy is partly at fault because she tried to help change Donny a little too late. Donny was already doing very poorly at school with low grades when his mother Daisy tried to help him. Also, when the teacher called Daisy to tell her that Donny was doing poorly, Daisy did nothing and pinned her hopes on Cal to change Donny, which did not have the desired effect that she had hoped for. But Daisy did try to change her son's bad behavior and even succedded in improving his grades quite a bit and got him counceling to help with his mental well being. Cal is also partly at fault for his encouragment Donny's bad behavior. Cal let Donny do whatever he wanted to do, which resulted in Donny's grades dropping and his susequent expulsion from school. While Donny's grades were getting worse, Cal told Daisy to let him talk to the teachers and Cal let Donny start failing his classes. This led Donny to worse and worse behavior that eventually led him to be expelled from school. But Cal did try to raise Donny's self esteem and Donny did have alot of fun with Cal, which resulted in Donny's self esteem going up. As a result, it was not entirely Cal's fault that Donny behaved so poorly. Donny was also to blame for his own bad behavior including: drinking, skipping school, getting bad grades, getting kicked out of his high school, and his running away from his home. He took advantage of the fact that Cal did not care about what Donny does at school so he started skipping classes, getting bad grades, and drinking alcohol. These bad behaviors led to his subsequent expulsion and his running away from home. In Anne Tyler's short story Teenage Wasteland Donny did not even leave a note or anything before he left, and has caused his mother Daisy much grief. Donny is the one most at fault for his own behavior, even though Cal and Daisy helped contribute to Donny's problems, but it is Donny who is in control of his own actions. Although Donny was inproving at the begining of teenage wasteland, Donny's poor choices led him away from the path his mother Daisy had wanted for him, and Daisy persumbly never saw Donny again after his decision to run away from home.

Paper Pills Discussion

In "Paper Pills" Doctor Reefy gets married to a dark-skinned women that dies and leaves him with a huge fortune. I believe that the woman is George Willard's mother Elizabeth Willard. The reason that Doctor Reefy's wife is Elizabeth Willard is because Doctor Reefy's wife had a hidden fortune that she left Doctor Reefy, and Elizabeth Willard had fortune left by her parents. Doctor Reefy's wife's apparent wealth is seen in the quote, " Later he married a girl who had . She had been left a large fertile farm when her father died." (Anderson 18) Elizabeth revealed the location of her massive hidden wealth to Doctor Reefy before her death. So, the wealth left behind makes it likely that Elizabeth Willard and the dark-skinned wife of Doctor Reefy are the same people. Both Elizabeth Willard and Doctor Reefy's wife visited the doctor when they were ill. Also, both Elizabeth Willard and Doctor Reefys wife died due to illness, thus further increasing the probability that they were the same person. Futhermore, Elizabeth Willard and Doctor Reefy were lovers as seen in the quote, " Be patient, lover." ( Anderson 232) Elizabeth Willard told Doctor Reefy to " Be patient, lover," which further proves that Elizabeth and Doctor Reefy's wife are the same person, because they were both in love with him and both were ill towards the end of their lives.

In "Paper Pills" apples are often mentioned throughout the short story. I believe that the apples symbolize tragedy. The apples " Are only a few gnarled apples that the pickers have rejected."(Anderson 19) The apples talked about in "Paper Pills" are the ones that get ignored, because of their appearance. These apples are rejected and thought of as waste, so whenever apples are mentioned in "Paper Pills" they represent negative connotations, thus symbolizing tragedy. The apples in "Paper Pills" "Look like the knuckles of Doctor Reefy's hands." ( Anderson 18) Doctor Reefy's hands look like the apples that people reject, symbolizing tragedy. The doctor is usually alone as loses his wife to illness, thus Doctor Reefy's life clearly shows tragedy. So, Doctor Reefy's knuckles are described as the apples, which shows that he has experienced much tragedy in his life. In " Paper Pills" the narrator mentions that " Only the few knew the sweetness of the twisted apples." ( Anderson 20) The narrator was saying that most people do not like tragedies. Most people would rather avoid seeing a tragedy just like most people would rather avoid eating twisted apples. Thus, the fact that most people would avoid the twisted apples, helps show that the apples symbolize tragedy in " Paper Pills".

 

Hairball and Where are you going? Where have you been?

Throughout Margaret Atwood's short story Hairball, the significance of power and the results that come with a lack of power are clearly seen throughout the passage. In Margaret Atwood 's short story Hairball, Kat orignally had much power over people. Kat was able to cause Gerald to change into a different person according to her desires. Also, Kat has an upper level postion in a newspaper and is in charge of many people. She manipulated Gerald into buying her expensive dinners so that she would not have to pay, and she got to decided what Gerald's name should be for him. Kat called him gerald. Essentially Kat got almost everything she had wanted. Yet, there are instances where Kat does not have much power. When Kat had gotten pregant multiple times, the men decided for her that she should get an abortion. This had caused Kat to be without children and has caused an absense in her life. When Gerald suddenly got much power, he took Kat's job away from her and she still let him kiss her. Kat lost her livelyhood and lost her affection for Gerald, because of the absense of her power or the lack of power. Atwood was trying to show how having power and control over people lets one have almost everything one desires, but when a person does not have power they will lose control over there life. When Kat regained some of her power, she gave her hairball cist to Gerald in front of his wife. She had even put it into a chocolate box. This let Kat to regain some control over her life and let her be freed of Gerald's influence. As a result, Kat felt relieved, relaxed, and content.
Throughout Joyce Carol Oates's short story Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? the significance of power and the results that come with a lack of power are clearly seen throughout the passafe. In Joyce Carol Oate's short story Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?, Connie did not have much power and suffered as a result of the absense of power. Connie had no power over her mother, so her mother kept on insulting Connie with her friends, both behind Connie's back, and right in front of Connie. This led Connie to dislike her family and not want to spend much time with them. In Where Are you Going? Where Have You Been?, Connie's lack of power led Arnold to take control of her actions and get her to do what he had wanted her to do. Arnold told Connie to drop the phone and get back outside, but even though Connie had closed the door and had a phone in her hand she still dropped the phone. Connie had a clear  opportunity to get some help for herself, but Arnold had power over her. This had caused Connie to lose her chance to save herself from Arnold. Later in the passage, Arnold told Connie to step outside and get in his car and she did. This had caused Connie never to see her family again. Joyce Carol Oate's tried to show her audience the dangers of not having enough power over others and yourself.

 

Teenage Wasteland discussion

In the Anne Tyler's short story Teenage Wasteland Donny gets kicked out of his high school and runs away from home. Some people think that it is his mother Daisy's fault that her son Donny gets kicked out of his school and runs away from their home.  I personally do not think that Daisy is entirely to blame for Donny's bad behavior; I think that its a combination of Daisy, Donny, and Cal's faults that contributed to Donny's reckless actions. Daisy is partly at fault because she tried to help change Donny a little too late. Donny was already doing very poorly at school with low grades when his mother Daisy tried to help him. Also, when the teacher called Daisy to tell her that Donny was doing poorly, Daisy did nothing and pinned her hopes on Cal to change Donny, which did not have the desired effect that she had hoped for. But Daisy did try to change her son's bad behavior and even succedded in improving his grades quite a bit and got him counceling to help with his mental well being. Cal is also partly at fault for his encouragment Donny's bad behavior. Cal let Donny do whatever he wanted to do, which resulted in Donny's grades dropping and his susequent expulsion from school. While Donny's grades were getting worse, Cal told Daisy to let him talk to the teachers and Cal let Donny start failing his classes. This led Donny to worse and worse behavior that eventually led him to be expelled from school. But Cal did try to raise Donny's self esteem and Donny did have alot of fun with Cal, which resulted in Donny's self esteem going up. As a result, it was not entirely Cal's fault that Donny behaved so poorly. Donny was also to blame for his own bad behavior including: drinking, skipping school, getting bad grades, getting kicked out of his high school, and his running away from his home. He took advantage of the fact that Cal did not care about what Donny does at school so he started skipping classes, getting bad grades, and drinking alcohol. These bad behaviors led to his subsequent expulsion and his running away from home. In Anne Tyler's short story Teenage Wasteland Donny did not even leave a note or anything before he left, and has caused his mother Daisy much grief. Donny is the one most at fault for his own behavior, even though Cal and Daisy helped contribute to Donny's problems, but it is Donny who is in control of his own actions. Although Donny was inproving at the begining of teenage wasteland, Donny's poor choices led him away from the path his mother Daisy had wanted for him, and Daisy persumbly never saw Donny again after his decision to run away from home.

 

Mrs.Clinch my group won the competition during the literary allusion, so I will only be writing four hundred words.
Some people may think that Winesburg Ohio is a collection of short stories, but I do not agree with that statement. I think that the stories of Winesburg Ohio are connected to one another and make up one big story. The stories of the minister Curtis Hartman's chapter Strength of God, the teacher Kate Swift's chapter, and George Willard's chapter are all connected to one another. The minister Curtis Hartman succumbs to his sinful desires of the school teacher Kate Swift and tells George Willard about Kate's holiness. This occurs after George Willard's talk with Kate and made him really confused. This shows that the stories are connected, because the minister had his own problems in the Strength of God chapter and George Williard had his own issues with Kate in a different chapter, yet both Curtis and George were affected by the same women during the same time period. Although some may think of Winesburg Ohio as a collection of short stories, the stories are infact connected together, as seen during the minster Curtis Hartman's talk with George Willard about the teacher Kate Swift's holiness, because the stories were occuring during the same time. George Willard's chapters and Doctor Reefy's chapters are connected to each other as well. The doctor had his own chapter that affected him and he explained some of the effects of those experiences to a George Willard in a different chapter. The doctor lost his imaginary friends after he told a women he loved to leave in one chapter, but told George Willard about the experience in a different chapter. Doctor Reefy's stories to George Willard  are significant, because they help prove that the stories in Winesburg Ohio are not just short stories, but part of one big whole story. I think the author of Winesburg Ohio intentially made the different chapters focus on the lives of different people from chapter to chapter so that the reader can make up their own thoughts as to whether Winesburg Ohio is one big and connected plot or a series of short stories. Both sides can be argued fairly, but by making it hard to tell if the Winesburg Ohio is one big sotry or not, it makes the reader think.

Literary merit of catching fire

During my summer reading assignment, I chose to read Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire. The book Catching Fire  did not have much literary merit and was made mostly for commercial purposes. Just like in the book Hunger Games, Catching Fire includes people killing each other in a tournament for survial. Catching Fire was made to take advantage of Americans love of violence and use it to sell many copies of the book. The book Catching Fire differs from the book Hunger Games by including an upcoming revolution in the book. Although many people may think that this makes the story have a deeper meaning and makes the book Catching Fire have literary merit, this is untrue because the Arab Spring was going on during the time this book was being written; people were rebelling all over the middle east, and many Americans were in the mood to read about people struggling against oppressive governments. So Catching Fire tried to imitate the revolutions going on in the middle east during this time by having the people stand up against the central government just like in the middle east. This helped insure that the book would sell and that a sequel would be easily lined up, as a result this book can be clearly seen as just a book made for mostly commercial purposes and a book without much literary merit. Catching Fire had many elements that were taken from other stories including the main character, Katniss Everdeen having two potential love intrests thourghout the book(they were Peeta and Gale), just like in the Twilight series and the main character has an " wise old man" in the novel (named Haymitch), just like in the Harry Potter series. Also, the book Catching Fire  has a character that was thought to be one of the main characters enemy, but turned out to be an ally in disguise (he was Finnik); this is clearly an imitation of Proffesor Snape's role in the Harry Potter series, because throughout the series Snape appeared a villian but was a " good guy".  These points clearly shows that the book is taking elements from popular series including Harry Potter and Twilight and incorporating it in its own plot, to try to sell as many books as possible, which makes the book Catching Fire  not have much literary merit and makes the book seem to be a commercial fiction book.