Semester so Far

Overall I think the semester is going ok.  I feel like the blogs are beneficial because they start to get you thinking about the story and what was really happening in it.  I also like the grammar guides and feel like they help a lot.  They are way better than searching through your paper looking for mistakes.  The grammar guides help you to realize why things should be this way and not that way.  The gists I'm kind of neutral on.  I feel like some of them help me and others really don't.  Some of the stories that we have read I had a really hard time trying to come up with a topic for the gist, but other stories such as the gist over "The White Heron" helped to give me a possible topic for my second paper.  The only thing I really don't like this semester is peer review.  I find it not to be much help, but I really don't know how it could be fixed.  I also really like our class discussions because it gives you other people's perspectives on the story that you may not have thought of yourself.  I believe the class discussions help the open your eyes to other people's opinions and perspectives on the stories instead of being super narrow-minded and believing your perspective was the right and only one.

"The Little Mermaid"

The setting plays a large part in the short story "The Little Mermaid."  The author's description of not only the people, but the place they lived, gives the reader a very vivid picture of their home looked like and what the places they visited looked like.  "Many a night this quiet, thoughtful little mermaid would stand by the open window, looking up through the dark blue waters where the fishes swam,"  this quote evokes the emotion of peace and calm.  I can image myself when I was little standing at the window at night looking out at the stars.  Also when the author is describing the sea witch's home you get the eary feeling because of the description he uses when he describes the trees and the turbulets that the little mermaid had to swim against to see the sea witch.  Without setting, this would be a very dull story where the reader would not be able to place themselves within it or evoke the emotion of the story.  The best part of this story was being able to put yourself into the story and image you were living it

"The Little Mermaid" is told in third person limited omniscient.  I believe the author choose this point of view because it was not necessary for the reader to be able to see into the other sisters' thoughts or feelings like it was for the little mermaid.  By using third person limited omniscient the reader is still able to see what the little mermaid is feeling and what she is thinking.  I think it would be neat to read this story if it would have been written in first person from the little mermaid.  But if the reader would have choosen a different point of view this would be a very different story than it is now.  There is always a reason why the author chooses which point of view to use over another.

Learning in College

After reading the article I agree with most of the article there were a couple points I disagree with.  I agree with the fact that colleges are not pushing their students hard enough.  Last semester was really easy for me, most of the classes I took, including anatomy and physiology were review from what I did in high school.  While some of my classes this semester are a little more challenging, some are just like high school.  My college bound teacher in high school really prepared me for your class.  We would have tests over books that were graded completely on how you contributed to the discussion.  If it wouldn't have been for him, I would probably be more hesitant to talk in class.  I also believe that students are not learning as much in college as they could is because they cheat their way through.  Some people have the philosphy why learn, when you can cheat and get a better grade.  When you are in a lecture hall with over 200 students and only teacher, there is no way that the teacher is able to monitor what every person is doing at every single second.  The part of the article that I disagree with is that students learn better when they study and read alone.  While in some sense this is true.  I do a majority of my studying for anatomy by myself, but it also helps to review with girls on my floor, because if you don't understand something they are able to explain it to you.  By quizzing each other you are both learning, you also give each other little tips on how to remember things.  You cannot completely blame the professors for students not learning in college.  Students get out of college what they put into it.  If they really want to learn the material and do well in their future, they will put in the time to learn it and succeed.

Compare and Contrast

The plot and characters in the two short stories "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and  "The Birthmark" are very similar, yet have their differences.  As each stories progresses the characters try and change another character to fit what they want.  We also have motivated characters in both stories.  Each character has a point to contribute to the story, there were no characters that were just thrown into the stories that you sit and think, why is this character in the story.  While "Bartleby, the Scrivener" uses the plot structure of exposition, and "The Birthmark" uses chronological, the stories are set up very similar.  They both are set up to tell you the things that happened in order instead of flashing back to what has happened in the past.  One difference in the plot is that I believe "Bartleby, the Scrivener" could have been written in another plot structure, but "The Birthmark" could not have without ruining the story.  Some differences in the characters between the two stories are that the characters in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" are plausible, the stuff the characters did could have actually happened, while the characters in "The Birthmark" were not very plausible.  Another thing that "Bartleby, the Scrivener" had that "The Birthmark" did not was that it had a foil character.

By comparing the two stories we can learn how different plot structures work with stories and why they work.  The two stories would have been very different if the authors would have choosen different structures.  A theme we can learn from comparing these two stories is that you should not judge people.  "Bartleby, the Scrivener" teaches us not to judge people before we know them and "The Birthmark" teaches us not to judge people for their outside appearance.  By comparing these two stories we can learn about different characters, plot structures, and themes.  Comparing stories helps you to understand why something works for one story, but not for another.

Class Discussion

I really like today's class discussion.  I thought I had which girl was black and which girl was white figured out, but today's discussion made me realize that there really was no way to determine which of the girl's was white and which was black.  My assumptions were based off of what I had been taught about race.  I also like our discussion on "White Privilege" because many of the things we talked about you don't think about, but when you actually stop and think they are true.  Many things in life are based off of what color our skin is, which it should not be.  Racism is something that many of us don't think about much, but it still exists.  These were two of my favorite short stories I have ever read.

Twitter Article

One thing that we really need to take from this article is that you cannot believe everything you read online because there is a chance that it is not really who you think it is.  Also is it possible to know if the person is real or not?  "Twitter allows parody accounts as long as they are labeled as such."  While this is a requirement how do we know that everybody who makes a parody account actually follows this rule.  We can't be sure.  People need to remember what they post online is now open to the public.  While it is not right that people create fake facebooks or twitters for people it happens.  People need to be careful what they post.  The overall message from this article is not believe everything you read because on sites such as twitter and facebook it is easy for people to create fake accounts and tell the world anything they want about the person they are pretending to be.

What I found useful and not useful

In the first paper we wrote I found it sort of difficult to come up with a topic to write about.  I liked when we did the circle with the main theme in the center and then did all the branches off of it.  This class activity helped me to start thinking about topics.  I also found the meeting with you helpful because I could ask questions about your comments instead of having to try and infer what I thought you meant.  I also really liked the outline because it made writing the paper very simple.  The one thing that I did not find helpful was the peer review.  I felt like I did not get much feedback from the group besides yeah your topic is good.  In general, I'm not a fan of peer review because I don't think you ever get very good feedback.

Metamorphosis

I believe Gregor's death symbolized the setting free of the family.  After his death they were able to leave the house without having to worry about what Gregor might do, or what might happen if they all leave.  "Then all three of them left the apartment together, something they hadn't done for months, and took the trolley out to the country on the edge of town" (Kafka 52).  If Gregor had never passed away the family would still be living in fear of him, yet taking care of him because he is still their son and they have hope that he will soon return back to his old self.

Works Cited

Stillman, Peter G. "Warnings, Alternatives, and Action:  The Totalistic Dystopias of the Twentient Century in We, Brave New World, and Nineteen Eighty-Four."  Topic:  the Washington and Jefferson College Review 56 (2010):  33-47.  Humanities International Complete. Web. 30 Jan. 2011

Amey, Michael D. "Living Under the Bell Jar: Surveillance and Resistance in Yevgeny Zamyatin's We."  Critical Survey 17.1 (2005): 22-39. Humanities International Complete. Web. 1 Feb. 2011.

Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We. Trans. Natasha Randall. New York: Modern Library, 2006. Print.