English 145 Blog

Clarice Lispector The daydreams of a drunk woman. One part that stood out to me was "She awoke late, the potatoes waiting to be peeled, the kids expected home that same evening from their visit to the country. "God, I've lost my self respect, I have! My day for washing and darning socks... What a lazy bitch you've turned out to be!" She scolded herself, inquisitive and pleased... shopping to be done, fish to remember, already so late on a hectic Sunday morning." (811) This stood out to me because throughout this entire reading, she was very harsh on herself. She always scolded herself for oversleeping and not getting things done. She was very flippy floppy. She was an alcoholic which can cause you to have mood swings.  Lispector talks about the women being "in love" and then soon after the women would walk up angry, dizzy, and weak. She talks to herself alot, she does a lot of thinking to herself, most of her thoughts stay in her head. Sh...

Leopold Sedar Senghor Senghor was a poet, a founder of the Negritude movement, and the first president of independent Senegal. (676). Senghor was born in Joal, a small fishing village in the Sine-Saloum basin in west-central Senegal. The first African American student to pass the highly competitive examination for the agregation,  he was qualified a pursue a career in the French educational system. Was drafted into the French Army as an officer in 1939, he was taken as a prisoner by the Germans in 1940 and wasn't released until two years later on medical grounds that were confined to Paris. He continued to teach and in 1944 he was appointed professor of African languages at the Ecole Nationale de la france d'Outre-Mer. (676) In 1946 was his first election with the French Constituent Assembly as a deputy for Senegal, Senghor had launched his political career. In 1956, Senghor's collection Ethiopiques represented a new direction in his poetry, one less overtly related t...

James Baldwin James Baldwin was an African American novelist, he was one of the great prose stylist of the twentieth century. Baldwin was best known for his remarkable essays that, in poetic rhetoric drawing on both the classics of English Literature and the tones of biblical prophecy, combine personal reflection with a wider view of social justice. (735) Baldwin grew up with his mother and step father. Baldwin preached sermons as a young man. In 1943, Baldwin moved to Greenwich Village to pursue is writing career.  Notes of a Native Son The reading starts out with Baldwin writing about his father's death in 1943. It just so happened that his last child was born on the same day a few hours later When Baldwin's father died he was rushed with the burden of white people. He couldn't help but think the bitterness that was involved in killing is father would in someway kill him too. Baldwin's father soon had mental problems, he thought his family was poisoning him ...

Anna Akhmatova  She was born in 1889.  She was born in the suburb of the Black Sea port of Odessa and was the daughter of a maritim engineer and an independent women of revolutionary sympathies  (565) Akhmatova's interest in larger musical forms that motivated her started during WWII. She married Nikolai Gumilyov in 1910 and although they divorced, his arrest and execution for counterrevolutionary activites in 1921 put Akhmatova's status into question.   She became known as one of the greatest Russian poets of the twentieth century (565) Requiem, is a lyrical cycle, a series of poems written on a them. (567) "Akhmatova blends her individual personal losses- husband, son and friends- to creat a signle focus: the figure of a mother grieving for her condemned son." (567 Requiem was actually published without her consent in year 1963 in Munich.It wasn't until 1987 the complete text was published in the Soviet Union.  Her Death, in 1966...

Yeats When you are old This poem seemed to be about a past relationship. When reading it, it seems full of love. "One man loved the pilgrim soul in you, and loved the sorrows of your changing face." (522). This line stood out to me because, 'the sorrows of your changing face' reminds me of growing old with someone, but you still love them. The poem takes a darker turn in the last stanza and as you read you realize that she seemed to break his heart. "Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled" (532) 'How love fled' was the line that stood out to me here. One minute love was there and the next it was gone. Leda and the swan The poem is pretty dark. A young girl named Leda is raped by the Greek God, Zeus. He took form as a swan, started to beat her with his wings and he got her pregnant. She then gave birth to Helen of Troy. It was clear through the poem Zeus had a power over her.

Woolf's "A room of One's Own" "More than anything, perhaps, creatures of illusion as we are, it calls for confidence in oneself. Without self-confidence we are as babes in the cradle. And how can we generate this imponderable quality, which is yet so invaluable, most quickly? By thinking that other people are inferior to oneself. By feeling that one has some innate superiority- for there is no end to the pathetic devices of the human imagination- over other people." (359) I've decided to discuss this paragraph from 'A Room of One's Own' by Virginia Wool because it really caught my attention. I think we can in all way relate to this paragraph in some way. Whether, you are the one who acts superior to others or if you are on the opposite side and feel others think they are superior to you. This superior-ness can come from anything, for example, a job, money, cars, a house, your children, etc. I'm sure the person driving next to me in...

Virginia Woolf  "Virginia Woolf was one of the greatest modern novelists, on par with James Joyce, Marcel Oroust, and Thomas Mann." (337) A really interesting line stood out to me. "Woolf did in fact write a memoir for her father, but she later noted that if he has not died when she was relatively young, she never would have become an author." (337) Woolfs work is admired so dearly because she has a profound way portraying the way we think and feel.  From A Room of One's Own  This piece is about Woolf being asked to discuss the topic of Women and Fiction. Her overall argument is that, "women need a room of their own and money if she is to write fiction"  Woolf doesn't only talk about women's literature she also looking at the historical and theoretical stages that are seen throughout women's literature.  It is clear the Woolf is rooting for women, she believes that women can strive for bigger and better things despite wha...

Hedda Gabler I chose to do my analysis on Hedda Gabler because I really enjoyed reading this play! Hedda Gabler is one of my favorite characters that we've read about so far. "Hedda Gabler may be a manipulator but she is a manipulator with a vision. She is driven by her hunger for a more fulfilling, ideal, and beautiful life." (780) I love this quote because it gives you the idea before you even read the play as to who Hedda is. As I read the play, I saw that Hedda did indeed strive for a more fulfilling life but she did this at any cost. She would manipulate people if she had too, and she was also for very polite or courteous to others. For example, when Georges Aunt, who is sixty-five years old, needed a ride in their carriage back home from the pier they went to he said "We felt so bad that we couldn't take you in the carriage-but you saw how many trunks Hedda had to bring." (784) This should give you a pretty good idea of the person Hedda truly wa...

Henrik Ibsen Ibsen was born in 1828 in a small town in Norway. He spoke Norwegian which wasn't the most ideal language for a career in literature. "Isben wrote in ordinary language and devoted his drama to undoing deceit and pretense, to unveling hidden motives and past misdeeds so that the truth would shine forth on the stage" (779) I thought this quote was perfect to describe how Isben wrote his plays. He enjoys writing about drama and having it come to life on stage.  Hedda Gabler  Hedda is in a pretty boring marriage. She was once the talk of the town, but since Victorian era was different she was being trapped into a marriage that was lifeless.  The fact that Hedda and George were in different class systems was interesting to me because you usually didnt marry someone outside of your class. Another thing that caught my attention was that Hedda was actually in the upper-middle-class and George was in the lower-middle-class, I usually see the man havin...

Leo Tolstoy Tolstoy was born in 1828, he had four other siblings that grew up with him. His parents were part of the highest class in Russian society. Both of his parents died when he was young causing him to become an orphan. Despite him coming from a rich background he did not take advantage of that, he worked hard for everything he had accomplished. It was surprising to me to see that he was vegetarian considering the time he was born. I'm sure it was pretty hard to be a vegetarian in the 1800-1900's. A lot of questions filled my head while reading this story. It wasn't like anything we have read before, in my opinion. I wish the author would have given us a little more background on how Ivan died and who he was while he was alive. One theme that stood out to me was death. For obvious reasons. Since this story is about the death of a man, it is talked about a lot. This man is Ivan Ilyich, he is an ordinary middle class citizen who learns he is going to die. The s...

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