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.