Reflection

                Senior year is finally over! Compared to last year, senior year has to be by far the most complicated year of all. Senioritis is the worst incurable disease out there that attacks seniors to the deepest part of the brain and body.  Even though we had more work last year, the procrastination vine grew in me and had my brain all tied up. It impaired my reasoning skill at masses. Being surrounded by the best counselors did not help me much. I almost thought that I would never make it through. I can say that my expectation dropped tremendously; when you consider a 70 as a good grade something is terribly wrong. I knew then that something had to change; the vine however was still there attacking the few brain cells I knew I had left.

               Even though it was completely my decision to enroll back in Mrs. Day class, there were plenty of times throughout the year that I desired to call QUIT! However, I stuck to my decision 'till the very end. I guessed having one rigor filled class would have to make a difference. I was wrong my brain is not a temple that can restored in three days.

                Going out to the real world, is going to take sometime to get accustomed to. U of M here I come.

Interview

During this interview conducted by David Savran to August Wilson, Savran tries to uncover the motive behind the tensed play written by Wilson, Fences. Savran asks Wilson about the aggressive relationship between Troy and Cory, father and son. Wilson justifies this relationship by stating that " the father-son conflict is actually a normal generational conflict." It is expressed that by Cory challenging his father, Troy feels as if he were preparing his boy for the real world. As a father in the mid 1980's, which is when the play is staged, Troy feel that his son should learn hands on skills and not skill that can be taken away from him. Wilson, the author of the play, agreed with the ideas portrayed by Troy.
I think that Wilson is foolish to believe that African Americans should not integrate to the rest of America. If they do not then how else do they expect to succeed. Also, for a child to learn he/she should not be taught by aggression.

Tragedy and the Common Man

In his piece,"Tragedy and the Common Man," Arthur Miller, argues that both the "common man" and royalty are subject to the same tragedies. He states that there is no difference in these except for the simple fact that the higher you are in a social scale, the more you are affected by these tragedies. He also discusses the ranking that is given to those who are tragic heroes. "Insistence upon the rank of the tragic hero, or the so-called nobility of his character is really but a clinging to the outwards forms of tragedy. However, later in the piece he acknowledges the fact that "tragedy is necessarily allied to pessimism." Miller expresses his views towards society's definition of a tragedy and argues that "in truth tragedy implies more optimism in its author than does comedy and that its final result ought to be the reinforcement of the on lookers' brightest opinions of the human animal."

Personally, I would have to agree with Miller's first couple of views because tragedy hits disregarding who you are. However, I do not seem to completely understand how exactly tradegy implies any type of optimism.

On Minimalist Fiction

John Barth, in his short piece, “On Minimalist Fiction,” states that minimalism is the best way to write a piece. “Minimalism is the principle underlying the most impressive phenomenon on the current literacy scene.”  Barth uses the repetition of “striped-down” and “minimal” to emphasize that minimalism is the best way to go presently.

First and foremost, this was the hardest piece to blog on. I never thought that giving my opinion on something could be so hard. Personally, I think that there is some satire in the first paragraph, yet I cannot fully explain it. I think that the last sentence of the first paragraph is satirical as it states “I mean the flowering of the (North) American short story…” In this statement is seems as if he were mocking North America calling it lazy.

Poetry? Prose?

In his piece, “On the Differences between Poetry and Prose,” T. E. Hulme points out the difference between poetry and prose. He compares prose to a concrete thing in algebra that is “embodied in signs or counters which are moved about according to rule, without being visualized at all in the process.” Poetry on the other hand is seen as the rebellious one because, it “may be considered as an effort to avoid this characteristic of prose.” Although poetry is not a counter language, “it is a compromise for a language of institution which would hand over sensations bodily.” In other words they are both concrete ideas/ object however, prose follows the rules and poetry is more of a visual concept.

My interpretation of this piece would be that prose is duller than poetry. I say this because of the comparison that Hulme uses while describing poetry, [A poet says a ship “coursed the seas” to get a physical image, instead of the counter word “sailed.”]

"On the Dangers of Reading Fiction

In his letter, “On the Dangers of Reading Fiction,” Thomas Jefferson expresses his disapproval towards reading fiction.  He compares fiction to poison and states, “When this poison infects the mind, it destroys its tone and revolts it against wholesome reading.” He goes on to say that because of the embellishments that are put in fiction, the reader then rejects “the real businesses of life” because their imagination has been filled with fictitious ideas.Personally, I rarely engage in reading, yet I do not agree with his views, I would rather read fiction and experience the creativity of the author’s mind than sit and read about how the Europeans took over America, we hear enough of that in school why would I want to bore myself by reading that.

On Close Reading

In the literary piece “On Close Readings,” Peter Rabinowitz argues that close reading is not always the best form to read. He states that “the way one reads also varies from text to text.” He later defends his argument by stating that “different authors, different genres, different periods, different cultures expect readers to approach the text in different ways.”Later in the piece, Rabinowitz expresses his opinion on the text students should be exposed too.

            I agree with the arguments presented in this piece because students should not be forced to analyze all pieces of literature in the same manner. For example, we sometimes come across points, or devices in a text that are superficial  yet we do not catch because we are occupied in finding the meaning to everything and how it relates back to the theme, tone or mood. I also believe that students should read texts that will broaden their horizon.