What kind of narrator here? (I just want to know if this consider a third person omniscient narration)

Posted on February 28, 2013 by heyheihey123

As Faith opens the door for her husband, Goodman Brown, he looked outside and then starts crossing the threshold. He turned back and gives her a parting kiss. Faith, the name was aptly named. She thrust her head into the street; letting the wind play with the pink ribbons on her cap.

“Dearest heart”, whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, “pr’ythee, put off your journey until sunrise, and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts, that she is afeard of herself, sometimes. “My dear husband, stay here with me tonight”, said Faith.

“My love and my Faith,” he replied, “of all night in the years, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done ‘twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, dost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married!”

“Then God bless you!” I said, “And may you find all well, when you come back.”

“Amen!” he cried. “Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee.”

So they parted; and she sees the shadow of Goodman Brown is fading away and the tears on her face dropped. Then she walks back in to the house and closed the door. The house seems empty and lonely. She walks into her room with a worried face that she senses that something “bad” is going to happen to Goodman Brown. She paced to the window and looked outside, “Please my lord, bless on him all the way until he is back home safe.”

“Faith, Faith….Help me!” She woke up and realized it was a nightmare. She cried on her bed. It is raining outside and then she falls back to sleep. In her second dream, she sees her husband in the forest walking alone. While walking himself alone, she sees that Goodman’s mouth is moving like he is talking to someone, but she sees there is nobody next to him. Then she sees that he picked a staff that looks evil. The staff which bore the likeness of a great black snake, that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent. “My love!” she screams in her dream. She thought Goodman could hear her because she sees that he look forward when she called his name. She sees that he screams but she couldn’t hear what he said. Then she sees him disappeared in the forest.

She woke up again; it is now the next morning. She is thinking about what was the dream trying to tell her. She couldn’t figure out the meaning of the dream. “Was that really my husband in the dream?” she whispered to herself. She gets up from her bed and went to wash her face and then prepare the breakfast for Goodman that he is coming back to Salem village today.

She walks to the street, seeing her husband is walking toward the village. She looked happy. But as he comes by near her, he looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting. She wonders what happened to her husband, and she is worried. From that day on, he barely speaks to her. And he doesn’t trust her anymore. On the Sabbath-day, he refused to listen, and thought the people in town all became evil. “He doesn’t love me anymore,” she cried to herself. For the rest of her life, she lives her life as she is alone. And until Goodman dies, she still doesn’t know what happened that night in the forest.

Kafkaesque, Franz Kafka own literary style.

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Kathy

When I see the word Kafkaesque, my first guess is that it is something ‘of Kafka.’ I thought the word means his own works of literature maybe, or the style which he uses to write. From reading “The Metamorphosis,” the reader gets a sense of what style Franz Kafka uses, and one can say that is something different. It is not the plain literature we are used to, but something different and awkward. After searching the word Kafkaesque, I got that its meaning is “of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or resembling the literary work of Franz Kafka; marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity.”

When I read The Metamorphosis, my first reaction was that of disgust and fear at the same time. We are taken into this dream world, one can say, where Gregor has incarnated into a vermin, and now he is forced to live life like an animal, isolated from his family, who feel disgusted by his new appearance. “He was especially fond of hanging from the ceiling; it was quite different from lying on the floor; he could breathe more freely; his body had a light swing to it; and up there, relaxed and almost happy, it might happen that he would surprise even himself by letting go of the ceiling and landing on the floor with a crash…very soon his sister noticed his new way of entertaining himself- he had, after all, left traces of the adhesive from his feet as he crawled about.” Here we have a person who from nights’ sleep, went from being a perfect man to a creature. As the reader, one thinks that this only happens in dreams or nightmares better yet. Then we continue to read how he lives life as a horrible vermin, deprived from his human qualities for months.

From “The Metamorphosis,” we get to see how Franz Kafka uses a different literary style that is unique to his own writing, which is bizarre and grotesque, as what the word ‘Kafkaesque’ defines.

A Rose For Emily…

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Sifat Sharmin

In William Faulkner A Rose For Emily it mostly pictures a women life full of insecurity. Which bounds her to become detached from this world. For any one their fathers death gives them a feel of insecurity ,the loss of parents can easily tell upon a person’s emotion. And the same happens to her. But what makes it worse for her is that she was left with a house but no money. Though she was saved from paying taxes but she still had other issues in her life with men and society. This is a problem through out generation to generation. In our world women are totally depended on men and their emotional dependence make them weak. The situation that she dealt with through out her life made her what she was. Not letting people berry her dead father makes a clear point that she had psychological issues. And the events through out her life made it worse. She couldn’t even be with the person she admired because of this society.

The point I’m trying to make here is we can never let our self change for others or let others dominate our life. Emily couldn’t face the hardness of the society .She bow down to the society . She let the society dominate her so much that in one point when she couldn’t take it any more she decided to look her self her up in her own house. Created her own colorless world . For her that was the only way to tell the world to mind their own business. And specially when she society effect her love relation. Her cousin was called to deal with her relation. She was more effected . Over all she had an emotional break down that she even gave up her artwork. When a person doesn’t have independence of any kind they fail towards creativeness . So I guess her not providing any more painting classes shows that after all she has been through she had nothing to offer to the society. And she waned to save what ever she was left with .

This story is short . But a lot of events related to each other and the events are not even in sequence. The idea of making a time line for this story puts the evens in sequence and it helps the story unfold in a more understandable way.

The indirect work of William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”

Posted on February 26, 2013 by JosephU

So for two class sessions, we’ve been talking about the piece called “A Rose for Emily” and how the chronology was presented in this. To me, the effect of this sequencing was quite interesting. It makes the reading a bit more difficult but the author can give more of an interesting way of learning about a specific person, group or even the whole story, like the one we read so far. The order of this piece was a confusing one but if read more thoroughly, one can understand and find that it is an attention-grabber for most of us. As for me, this definitely got a hold me and I would rather see more of this kind of non-linear narrative. Non-linear narrative, also called disrupted narrative, is where events are out of chronological order or does not show direct patterns towards the events happening. It is often used to mimic the structure and recall of human memory but has been applied for other reasons as well. Maybe some of you guys can share if you would want more of this type of narrative and try to challenge ourselves in the slightest way?

This piece was portrayed nicely with the sequence of events, Faulkner wrote “That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart–” which is mentioned in the second section of the second page. He comes back to this event in two parts, with the father and later on, with Homer Barron. Basically, we are going through her life and it was since it started with her already dead. I think this is one of the ways that can be a good attention-grabber for most of us, getting to know Emily but also seeing how it all down to her dead. The effectiveness of this piece wouldn’t be good but that’s if people do not prefer this type of narrative. Having it linear would’ve completely turned around the story, having her alive and just basically being said by others, in which, would be another type of narrative. Even movies can be portrayed in non-linear very nicely like “Kill Bill 1 & 2” and “Pulp fiction” and t.v series such as “Lost”. Some of you guys can share your opinions and tell me if you found this piece interesting. If so, was it the type of narrative we have here?

Blogging for Wednesday and beyond

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Jody R. Rosen

To recap a few OpenLab-related items from class last week and today:

You can comment on glossary posts as well as the posts by the five students on for the day
You can comment more than once per class, but make sure at least one meets the 100-150 word requirement
You can write a blog post even if you’re not one of the 5–it would be on top of your regularly scheduled blog posts, though
You can add more than one word to the glossary per week–the more you add, the more we’ll all learn!
Please add a tag with the letter of your word to help us create a way to index our glossary (which we can’t alphabetize, unfortunately)–and go back and edit your previous glossary posts to add those tags
I’ve added the functionality to allow you to edit your comments. Please let me know that you can!

The group tasked with writing blog posts (300 words) by 5:00 Tuesday is the last group to post in the first go-round. Everyone else should comment (100-150 words for the required comment, any number for additional comments) by 10:00am on Wednesday. Once this final group has a turn, we can consider what works and what needs improving as we start our next round. If there’s anyone else who missed their turn to blog, jump in for Tuesday as well–but that doesn’t excuse you from commenting this time, too, since you were supposed to be on as a commenter for this class!

As always, remember to include a title that reflects what you’re writing (it shouldn’t be able to apply to everyone’s post and can certainly be longer than one word), choose appropriate categories and tags (or add if you want a tag that isn’t there already), write at least 300 words, proofread, and publish! If there are links or media you want to include, please do. Commenters, remember to proofread, too, and to take the opportunity to edit your comments after you publish them if necessary–we looked at how to do this in class on Wednesday. If you want to leave additional replies, you don’t need watch the word count, but you should still proofread!

New topics:

When you think of “The Metamorphosis,” can you picture it? Do you have a visual sense of the story? What provides that sense, or what would you need to have that sense if you don’t? After you consider that, you might compare the sense of the visual to other stories we’ve read so far. Or you might compare what you’ve envisioned with this short video featuring images from a graphic-novel adaptation of “The Metamorphosis.”

“The Metamorphosis” is translated from Kafka’s German “Die Verwandlung.” As you read, especially as you pay particular attention to the ways the story is crafted using particular words, consider that the words are the choice of a translator. If you are comfortable writing in another language, try translating your favorite passage from “The Metamorphosis” into that language to share with the class. Or, if you can read German, look online for a copy in German and try to translate a passage into English. What kinds of choices did you need to make to translate that passage? Is there anything that isn’t exactly the same as the version you read? Commenters who can read that language, what do you think about the translation, and would you have made the same choices?

There is a word, kafkaesque, based on Kafka’s writing. What do you guess it would mean, and why, based on reading “The Metamorphosis”? After you guess, look for the definition. Explain using details from “The Metamorphosis” why that’s the definition of the word. (Kafka’s is not the only author to have his name turned into an adjective, but it’s one more widely used outside of an English class. Faulknerian is also a word, but with a narrower usage).

Most of these topics are from last time, but still valid topics for blogging:

We have been looking at the effects of the non-linear order of time in “A Rose for Emily” on Monday, but you might take the opportunity to consider what effect the sequencing has. How does the order affect your understanding of the story and your experience with it? What would be gained or lost if it were linear? What do I mean by linear? I mentioned in class the film “Pulp Fiction,” which plays with order in a very effective way. Are there other texts–written, filmic, etc–that do this that you want to call attention to?

What does gothic mean? What is Southern Gothic, specifically? Wikipedia might be a good place to get a definition and explanation of what Southern Gothic is. How is “A Rose for Emily” an example of this? You might add that as your vocabulary word as well.

In what ways is “A Rose for Emily” similar to other texts we have read? different? What do you think about those similarities and differences?

The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” is different than others we have encountered. What term would you use to identify the narrator? is it a reliable narrator? Use evidence from the story to show why you say reliable or not.

What themes do you think “The Metamorphosis” introduces to us? Choose a particular passage that deals with that theme and reflect on it.

How do you deal with the outrageous situation presented in “The Metamorphosis”? Choose a passage that represents that and explain your reaction.

In what ways can we read “The Metamorphosis” metaphorically? What does metaphorically mean? Present one way it is a metaphor and explain that for us.

Jalousies

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Kathy

Jalousie; noun; a blind with adjustable horizontal slats for admitting light and air while excluding direct sun and rain.

From “A Rose for Emily”, William Faulkner- “And as soon as the old people said, “Poor Emily,” the whispering began. “Do you suppose it’s really so?” they said to one another. “Of course it is. What else could..” This behind their hands; rustling of craned silk and satin behind jalousies closed upon the sun of Sunday afternoon as the thin, swift clop-clop-clop of the matched team passed: “Poor Emily.”

After searching this word, what I came to understand is that it is used to imply that the people of the town talked behind Emily’s back. They said “poor emily” behind closed blinds, not to talk about her in public.

“A Rose for Emily” Chronology

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Jody R. Rosen

when Emily died, no one had seen the inside of her house in at least 10 years

house built in the 1870s?

Battle of Jefferson–people from it buried in the cemetery where Emily will be buried

1894: Colonel Sartoris releases Emily from the obligation of paying taxes

(Q: is this when Emily’s father died?)

next generation (20 years?): they want her to pay taxes, send notice 1/1, again in February, but she won’t pay. She looks small and fat, bloated

Colonel Sartoris died approximately 10 years before the next generation wants her taxes

30 years before they want her taxes: the smell; a week later, smell went away

2 years prior to the smell: her father died

the next day: Emily denied that he had died

three days later: she let them remove his body

a short time after her father died: Homer Barron left her

after the smell ended: Emily turned thirty, still single

gave china-painting lessons–8-10 years before they want to collect her taxes

a year prior, her 2 cousins visit, people pity her

buys poison = over 30

next day–they thought she’d kill herself

next Sunday: Emily and Homer driving down the street

the Sunday after: minister’s wife wrote to Emily’s family

people assume they’ll be married soon

Homer disappears, cousins leave after a week, then he reappears, then disappears again

Emily disappears into the house for almost six months

townspeople spread lime to get rid of the smell around the same time

age 40: teaches art class in her home

Negro man grows older–passage of time

Emily is secretive

Emily dies at age 74

back to the beginning: funeral

Negro man=servant, he leaves

funeral 2 days after she died

room upstairs hasn’t been open in 40 years–which is the time of the smell

room set up with wedding things for Homer

dusty

Homer’s body

an iron-gray hair=in her older age

Atrocious

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Simone McPherson

Atrocious: Adjective: extremely wicked, brutal, or cruel;: appalling , horrifying.

From “The Yellow Wallpaper”, ” I am sitting by the window now, up in this atrocious nursery, and there is nothing to hinder my writing as much as i please, save lack of strength.”(Page 2, paragraph 8)

Now i understand that the narrator believed that the nursery was a scary place to be in.

Haughty

Posted on February 25, 2013 by shrez

Haughty: adjective: having or showing the insulting attitude of people who think that they are better, smarter, or more important than other people

From the story ” A Rose for Emily”, ” ‘I want some poison’. she said to the druggist. She was over thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eyesockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper’s face ought to look.”

Now I understand that when Emily asked for the poison, she had a very dominating look in her eyes so that she won’t be questioned about buying the poison.

Caring or Hurting ?

Posted on February 24, 2013 by jocelynjv

In the short story of ” A Rose for Emily”, The main character that is being read about goes through her life being told how to live it. I can compare this stories with the other short stories that we have read. Emily could not marry any man she pleased with out the approval of her father. Of course that is a natural process for one’s parents to give an opinion. But in this situation, her father disapproved all of the male suiters as a candidate. “ We remembered all the young men her father had driven away….” (Section 2) As any parent would do, he was probably keeping her safe.

In my opinion he probably thought that no one was best for his daughter. In the story of ” The Yellow Wallpaper”, we also see about a women that is claimed to be sick by her husband who is a doctor. Her husband controls what his wife does in order to get “better” from her “sick conditions”. “John is a physician…If a physician of high standing and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression.“ (Page1)

I can say that both these men probably had a good intention of keeping their women safe, but in reality they were both hurting them. Emily’s father hurt her psychologically, in a way that she probably didn’t notice at first. She kept her fathers body after he died and lied that he had died until she was being questioned about it. She also poisoned the last man she fancied and kept his body at her bed in the room. She felt the need to be accompanied because she probably felt lonely. And in the Yellow Wallpaper, her husband took away her sanity, he did not let her do absolutely anything that would harm her. He took away the liberty of having friends and even from writing. The women felt that if she wrote with freedom she would feel better , but she was prohibited from it. In the end of the story, we find that she had gone crazy and probably developed into a serious psychological problem, which made her obsess over a yellow wallpaper in the room where she slept.

In conclusion, both of these short stories we see women being cared and hurt for by men, with “good intentions” but in reality end up having bad results in the end.

Impervious

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Kathy

Impervious; adjective; incapable of being influenced, persuaded, or affected.

From ” A Rose for Emily” pg 5, “Now and then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows– she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house– like the carven torso of an idol in a niche, looking or not looking at us, we could never tell which. Thus she passed from generation to generation– dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.

After searching the word, I now understand that as the years passed, Miss Emily grew unaffected from any news or events that occurred in her life. She was in a sense, unsensible to any feelings or thoughts.

absurd

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Crystal Lin

absurd; adjective – 1) ridiculously unreasonable, unsound, or incongruous; 2) having no rational or orderly relationship to human life : meaningless

From the story “Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka. “Then there was a ring at the door of the apartment. “That’s someone from the office,” he told himself, and he almost froze, while his small limbs only danced around all the faster. For one moment everything remained still. “They aren’t opening,” Gregor said to himself, caught up in some absurd hope. But of course then, as usual, the servant girl with her firm tread went to the door and opened it.” (Section I – paragraph 15)

Now I understand that Gregor wish the servant not going to open the door for this guest, but he knows this is a radicious hope because it’s not going to happen, and as the result the servent did open the door.

Unhappy Marriage-Fiction of Authority

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Crystal Lin

Majority unhappy marriage appear in women because of an unfair society in the past, but even in today’s society there’s still unhappy marriage exist. However, women in today’s society appear to have more dignity than in the past, at least they have right to say “NO!” and made their own decision because of the word “Respect.”

In the story “Female Ingenuity” from Fictions of Authority by Susan Sniader Lanser, she argued that the wife need to show the letter to the husband before she allow to send it out to her best friend. Because of that she forces to write in 2 versions, one is positive to show her husband and one is negative and that’s the actual letter and the letter she want to tell her friend. In the 1st letter, she said “I tell you my dear husband is one of the most amiable of men, I have been married seven weeks, and have never found the least reason to repent the day that joined us, my husband is in person and manners far from resembling ugly, crass, old, disgreeable, and jealous monsters, who think by confining to secure; a wife, it is his maxim to treat as a bosom-friend and confidatn, and not as a play thing or menial slave, the woman chosen to be his companion. Neither party he says ought to obey implicitly;–but each yield to the other by turns–” (page 9 middle paragraph). The sentence “far from resembling ugly, crass, old, disgreeable, and jealous monsters” the wife is actually saying her husband is instead of not and the meaning is hiding undearneath it.

However, in 2nd version of the letter which is the actual one. The wife wrote “I tell you my dear I have been married seven weeks, and repent the day that joined us, my husband is ugly, crass, old, disagreeable, and jealous[;]a wife, it is his maxim to treat as a play thing or menial slave, the woman he says ought to obey implicitly;–” (page 10 1st paragraph). The wife is telling her true feeling on her husband and her marriage.

If you compared the 2 versions, you will find that on the 1st letter the wife meant to write in truth but the words that she choose totally change the whole meaning. But at the end, which letter did she sent out?

Glower

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Yelwasli

Glower: verb: to look or stare with sullen annoyance or anger

From: “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka: “Gregor!” shouted his sister, glowering at him and shaking her fist. That was the first word she had spoken to him directly since his transformation.”

Now I understand that Gregor’s sister was enraged and gave him a stare out of anger.

Blogging for Monday’s class

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Jody R. Rosen

The group tasked with writing blog posts (300 words) for this weekend (mid-day Saturday, I believe, was what we decided) should be the final group to write a first post. Everyone else should comment (100-150 words for the required comment, any number for additional comments) by 10:00am on Monday. After this final group has a turn, we can consider what works and what needs improving as we start our next round. Anyone who missed their turn to blog should do so in this round–but that doesn’t excuse you from commenting this time, too!

We’ll look at the effects of the non-linear order of time in “A Rose for Emily” on Monday, but you might take the opportunity to consider what effect the sequencing has. How does the order affect your understanding of the story and your experience with it? What would be gained or lost if it were linear? What do I mean by linear?

From last time, but still valid topics for blogging: