Monthly Archives: January 2014

what weeping, the open window represented and the dead of Louise.

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In the short story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin i notice a pattern, Mrs. Mallard (Louise) had Heart problems which meant that any harsh news or situation could trigger her a heart attack. When Louise received the tragic news about her husband’s death she did not fainted or got any heart attack. Louise just wept and went to her room. Throughout the the story Louise was weeping and stopped when she thinks about her new beginning and freedom without Brently, but she would weep again when she picture brently dead cold body in front of her. Louise weeping represented the sorrow and happiness she had. sorrow of her husband death and her happiness of becoming an free women maybe because she did not have a great relationship with him.

 

The open window represents freedom and opportunities that her future has for her after her husband has died. From the window Louise sees the blue sky with fluffy clouds and treetops. She hears people and birds singing / twittering and smells the rain in the air. Everything that she experiences through her senses means joy and spring the season. The open window provides a clear, bright view into the distance and Louise’s own bright future.

 

Also at the end of the the story when Brently walked into the house everyone was shock that he was alive but Louise future and freedom was out the window. Louise did not died from heart disease but because of the joy that she was going to be an independent women.

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A little about me

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My name is Sibel. I was born in Turkey and have been living in New York since 1993. I came to USA when I was 13 years old. I have been living away from my parents for 20 years. It has been rough but they had always dreamed of a better life for me and by sending me to USA to stay with my aunt was what they thought was the first step for that.

I am a single mother of two. My son is 10 and my daughter is 5.  After a 9 year break I decided to return to school and pursue a degree.   My major is Human Service and this is my last semester.  Yes, it has been hard on me and my kids for me to juggle around school, work, internship and home, but at the end of the day when I come home to see my kids happy and healthy, I realize that I am doing a good job and I can do much better.

I know that it doesn’t sound like I have a spare time for myself but, I love to spend time with my kids. Weekends are mommy and me days for my kids.  All three of us love to build Lego cities. We have a closet full of Lego sets.  I love cooking, mostly Turkish food. We are planning our first family trip to Turkey this summer.  Everyone is pretty excited already.   My mother-in-law is also living with us. We enjoy her company and we love her.  She has been a great support.

The reason I took this course is because I needed an advanced English course to graduate. I also realized that, I read a lot of Turkish novels and my favorite authors are women for some reason, I thought it would be interesting to learn about women writers.  Looks like an interesting class already.

Homework for 2/4: “The Story of an Hour” and elements of fiction

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“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a great story to discuss for many reasons. It’s especially convenient because it packs so much into just a page and a half. After you read “The Elements of Fiction” and “The Story of an Hour,” re-read “The Story of an Hour” with pen or pencil in hand. Mark it up by identifying different elements of fiction you find in it, as well as anything else that stands out to you. When you take notes on a reading, what techniques do you use? Underlining, circling, bracketing, writing summaries, questions, observations, drawing arrows connecting similar ideas, defining words you didn’t know, among other techniques are great ways to get into a text. Try a combination of these techniques.

When you finish, write a blog post in which you identify a pattern or theme you noticed and noted, and show how it develops from beginning to end. You can judge if you’ve chosen something too big or too small based on how close you come to the goal of approximately 300 words for the post. The word count is indicated at the bottom of the frame of your post as you write it. Adjust accordingly.

Make sure you include a title for your post that reflects what you specifically wrote about–so not the title of the story, or “Homework” or something too general. Then choose the category Kate Chopin, and add any tags you want to your post. You might add a particular element of fiction that you’re writing about, or something else that stands out that you want to identify that will help a reader find your post on our site. If this is confusing, don’t worry about it yet–there’s time to learn this later.

If when you’re done you feel like you’re up for a challenge, try to add an image of your marked up copy of the story. You can take a picture of it, scan it, or use this great app called CamScanner that uses your smartphone’s camera to scan a document. Then on the same page where you’re writing a post, click on the Add Media button near the top. Follow these instructions to help you add the image. It’s not much different than attaching a file to a document. If you add a .jpg, it will appear in the post; if you add a .pdf, it will appear as a link.

If you have questions, please ask them here by leaving a comment on this post. I’m happy to answer questions, and look forward to reading your posts. One last thing: here’s how to write a post: when you’re logged in, a member of our course, and on our site, click the plus (+) at the top of the screen. That will take you to a new post.

introduction

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Hello, My name is Jonathan Leon and I’m 19 years old. Im Mexican-American I was born in Houston Texas and moved to Brooklyn when I was 5 years old. This is my second year at City Tech. my major Liberal Art & Arts. But I was thinking to transfer to a different major. One of my goals is to graduate with a Bachelor degree or maybe become an EMT, which maybe I could major on. I use to work in a restaurant as a part time and also worked in a jewelry store/arts and crafts from many different parts of the world. Things I love to do is drawing and taking my dog out for long walks but haven’t done that since its been real cold lately I also like to listen to music while I’m drawing just to change the atmosphere of the room to change the vibe of the drawings. I chose this class because I need an elective credit and seem like an interesting class to take and to learn more about women writers even though I never took a women writer class.

Now it’s my turn

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Hopefully you’ve gotten to know me a little bit just from my previous posts–our writing says a lot about us–but allow me to introduce myself more fully. I’m a native New Yorker, and have lived in three of the five boroughs. I’m an assistant professor in the English Department at City Tech, with a Ph.D. in English and a certificate in Women’s Studies from the CUNY Graduate Center. My undergraduate degree from Brown University is in both English and Biology. As a college student, this combination often confused people, and they would ask “What are you going to do, write science textbooks?” No, that was never an interest of mine. I do use a lot of science terminology and metaphors in my writing, both in my creative writing and in my scholarly work.

Here at City Tech, I’m involved in a number of interesting projects. I won’t list them all, but I’m active on the Undergraduate Research Committee, so let’s talk if you’re interested in conducting research. I’m currently the OpenLab co-director, and am conducting research on interactive technology use in education. My scholarly work also focuses on narrative theory, gender and sexuality studies, and literature of the 20th century.

Outside of work–if we can ever really separate the things we do into work and non-work, I’m an avid knitter and crocheter. I’ve been known to quilt. I love to cook. I want to learn how to use a letterpress. As you can see, I like to make things! It’s so satisfying to see a project through from start to finish, and to have a tangible object to show for it.

I love to look at old maps and photographs of New York, and often incorporate them into my ENG 1101 courses. Although I’m an amateur and don’t have fancy equipment, I love to take photographs when I travel, whether it’s to the UK (a great trip I took this summer), to California (where I’ll be visiting this spring), or even just for a ride on the Staten Island Ferry (which I’ve done countless times).

Now that you’ve gotten to know me a bit better, I look forward to getting to know all of you!

 

Introduction to my life

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I am a hospitality major because I love interacting with people from all spectrums of life. I have a constant need to help and learn. I have grandiose plans from my furture in all aspect of the hospitality industry. I am from Manhattan and work as a waitress at a small diner connected to the Holiday Inn Wall Street. I have two dogs named Carlos and Charlie and they are my everything. I like to spend my free time painting and watching movies with my boyfriend. I also enjoy cooking a nice meal for my boyfriend every night. You could say I am a simple girl living in a complex world. I have a very close family and see my mother almost every day. I live in the Financial District in Manhattan with my sister and our boyfriends. My parents live only two blocks away so it is very easy to see them as often as I please. My best friends name is Greg and he is amazing. I don’t know what I would do without him. He helps me in all aspects of life and never fails to put a smile on my face. I am excited for this class because I am eager to learn and strengthen my knowledge in on this topic. Cant wait to get started 🙂 !

Brazilian Girl Does NYC

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My name is Andressa (or Andie, depending on how well you can roll your “r”.) Actually I do prefer Andie, at least in the US. I’m a 25 year old transplant from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and have been living in New York since August 2009. I moved here with the premise of graduating college and possibly finding a job in the city. Four years on, a lot has happened and I’m very close to finally getting my diploma.

I’m crazy about graphic design; luckily enough, that’s my career. I started being curious about the topic back in 6th grade and never stopped. Between building websites for my favorite Irish boyband at age 12 and creating the visual identity for restaurants in New York City, it has been a great creative journey so far. This city is so full of life in so many ways; it’s hard to be bored around here.

I’m really glad I moved to the Big Apple. It was my first experience living without my parents and having to work to pay my bills. I had jobs before, but without the responsibilities that come when you don’t have mom buying toilet paper and dad calling the guy to fix the kitchen sink. I’ve learned a lot. Aside from making me grow as a person, New York has introduced me to art and culture like I never knew before. The museums, galleries and street art are an intrinsic footprint of the city. I love being a part of it.

All About Albert

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My name is Albert Morales. I’m a New Years baby and 22 years old. After this semester, this will be my third full year in City Tech. My first two years I was studying electrical engineering. During my second year of courses I realized that this major wasn’t for me. I always knew that I wanted to be involved in the technology field so i figured I would start with electrical engineering, then if it didn’t work out I would just branch out from there. So that’s what I did for my third year, I changed my major to computer science. I’m not going to lie, I still don’t know what line of work I want to be apart of in the near future. But I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s experiencing this problem. For me it’s important to stay consistent with work. Having a good job will give you experience, leadership, confidence , but most importantly responsibility. I currently have three different jobs, all which are part time. These jobs differ in fields, which is important to me so I can always have my options open. For my main job, I’m a porter for a building. I’m also part of the Maintenance crew . This job enables me to become better at time management because I’m always pacing myself to finish on time. Another job I do on the side, I assist my father in the iron works business. My father has been a welder for over 30 years now. I’ve been working with him for the past 8 years. My third job, I assist my friend who used to be a carpenter . Once he retired , he hired me to help him rebuild his old house. So that’s the main reason I ain’t stressing about my future. If I don’t find a career from school I’ll find a career in the welding business.

During my spare time , besides playing video games and hanging out with friends, I really enjoy writing lyrics. Rap lyrics to be specific. Battle rap lyrics to be even more specific lol. I’ve been addicted to battle rap ever since 2005. I know almost every battle rapper there is to know and I even show support and go to their live events. I’m fortunate enough that the best battle rap league, URL , holds most of their events in manhattan. The best battle rappers are all from New York as well. There is also a battle rap league in Canada called King of the Dot that I also support heavy. The battle rap scene has grown tremendously over the past 5-7 years. There isn’t a day that goes by where I’m not coming up with crazy punchlines or metaphors. I truly believe the material I come up with is better than 30-40% of other battlers. The reason I’m taking this class is to improve my vocabulary and not to mention my thought process.

Texts to discuss in class on Thursday

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In class tomorrow, we will be discussing two texts: Frida Kahlo, “Love Embrace of the Universe, The Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me, and Señor Xolotl” 1949, and Margaret Atwood, “There Was Once” 1992 (sign in to JSTOR using your library barcode number, which starts with 22477). To get our conversation started, reply to this post with a comment about the Frida Kahlo painting, considering any of the following questions or one of your own. Feel free also to ask a question for clarification or to further our discussion.

  • What do you notice in Kahlo’s depiction?
  • What is present/what is missing?
  • When did Kahlo paint this?  Does that affect your interpretation of the image?
  • Who are the characters depicted in the painting?
  • What depictions of women do you see, and how do you interpret them?
  • What do you think Kahlo’s message is?
  • How does the type of medium an artist uses affect the resulting piece of art?

We will read the Margaret Atwood text aloud in class, so be prepared to act it out! You should begin to consider what the characters sound like, how you would depict them in your performance, and how that conveys meaning to the audience.

Welcome to my life.

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My name is Gregory DeVico. I am attending City Tech and studying Hospitality Management. My dream position is to be a wedding planner. When it comes to school I am not an “A” student, however I am a student who works their hardest and their works proves just that. What interested me in the Hospitality field is the feeling you get when you make someones day. Weather it is during those five seconds when they are getting a cup of coffee at Starbucks, or serving them at a restaurant. Regardless making someones day go from okay to great is something I strive for everyday I am at work. I am taking this course because well its a requirement. However I do enjoy reading and I am excited to be exposed to all sorts of literature this semester. I currently live with my sister in west Harlem. I am originally from Cape Cod, Mass so naturally I feel like I should live on a beach. I enjoy being outdoors and rock climbing. I just came back from spending the last seven months doing the Disney College Program, and it was the best seven months of my life. I also enjoy travelling and am going to Italy this summer for 2 weeks.