Technology

   Technology is an ever changing aspect in the world.  Thanks to such great technology as a student I have the opportunity to partake in online classes for college.  English 102 is the sixth online class I've taken and I feel the more online classes I take, the easier it gets to navigate through blackboard and other links available for the classes I'm taking.
  This semester was the very first time I had ever used a video cam with Skype.  These two tools alone really make online learning a great success.  Only using these two tools once, it really helped get direction for the Frankenstein essay. Sure it may be easier to be in an in-class setting and brainstorm as a class out loud about certain topics, but for people who have to work it is ideal to use a computer and learn online opposed to in a classroom.
   I, being a single mom of two, don't have much extra time to actually go into the college and take classes.  I do want to earn a degree and continue with my education, but have other priorities that come first to my learning.  As a student that has not taken a college course in class in 5 years I can say that if the class I want is available online that is going to be my first choice. If you have good self discipline, a computer, and the will, online learning is great!

                                                    

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Final Presentation

English 102 on Prezi

Reflection on the Course

     This semester has been fun but quite challenging!  Starting off as a person who finds English challenging, I can honestly say that this is still a harder subject for me but I've learned new skills that will help me in the future.
   
     The first paper that was assigned, I was really not looking forward to.  Personally I do not find poetry interesting or useful in anyway.  My first draft I felt was decent, however Ms. Cline said I needed to look deeper for the underlying statement.  After reading the poem a hundred times, it felt like, it really started to make sense and I understood what I felt was the underlying theme.  The poetry assignment helped me to have an open mind about poetry and try to look deeper for a hidden meaning the author has.  With my final draft came much improvement and a feeling of accomplishment.
   
    Frankenstein was also challenging but it seemed easier because I enjoyed the novel.  This assignment taught me how to find specific citations that help the theme that I had chosen. My biggest challenge that I found while writing this paper was trying to tie everything that I had gathered and bringing it back to the my thesis.  But I feel that I did a good job on the final draft and knowing this was a specific challenge for me it really became a priority for the final paper.

    In the future, this English class will help me in my communication skills, as far as speaking with correct English.  The field I am entering there is typing evaluations on patients so I am sure it will also help there as well.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this class and am confident that the skills I've acquired will stick with me in life.

This image is from: http://www.petraedu.com/imgs/cartoon.bmp

Zombies

    After reading the assigned artical, it truly allows for a new perspective on the overwhelming amounts of zombie movies within the last ten years and even earlier.  The author of this article connects the subject of zombies with what is the current "war" situation.  It is quite interesting because he actually proves that after 9/11 the United States went into a fear mode.  With the population feeling scared and unsafe, the production and popularity of zombie movies sky rocket.

    He says how zombies are seen as more scarey objects than vampires or whitchs beacuse the represent the dead where as the others are alive in some way and often are made to be beautiful. Where zombies are the walking dead that feed on people who are alive to remain the walking dead.

    Another interesting fact that he links to the zombie craze is that often in zombie movies after they take over the living, often they show a deserted aftermath of the distruction the zombies leave behind.  He says that represents the aftermath of perhaps a nuclear bomb or a devistating war.  It is very interesting that when the United States is in a state of awarness of lurking dangers the peoples desires for these grotesque movies of death seem to sky rocket in popularity.  However, he also states that during the 90's the United States seemend to be blinded by minor issues going on and popularity for zombie movies were almost a zero.  He does a good job to connect war issues and popularity of zombie movies.
                   
I got this link from: rashmanly.wordpress.com

Final Project Draft

Lindsey Blakley         

English 102

Laura Cline

4 November 2011

Flannery O’Connor

Twentieth century literature was a time that consisted of many different types of authors.  Flannery O’Connor was a very unique author, popular for her technique and her many successful short stories.  O’Connor was known for her distinct violent type stories that ended in death or some crazy way.   Her last written book of short stories, “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” was considered one of her best pieces of work and was published after her death.  Although there were many constant themes present in her short stories, in this specific collection, racism toward people of different ethnicities was very prevalent and always seemed to be tangled into her creative stories.

Flannery O’Connor was born in the year 1929 and raised in Savannah Georgia.  She, being raised in the south and living through a time of intergrading blacks and whites together, gives O’Connor a unique but popular style of writing for this time.  In her stories she incorporates people of different statues that have different views about one another that add animosity and a good plot to the story.  O’Connor wrote in an era of New Criticism which John Skyes describe, “New Criticism might be said to represent at the theoretical level the same struggle with modernism in literature of the Southern Renaissance” (Skyes 28)  He also says, “New critics also maintained that literature had to be understood in its own terms suited to its unique discourse” (Skyes 29)  O’Connor’s stories were definitely different and her contents were appreciated because how they did well to relate to the time and events taking place around her.

                In the first story in O’Connor’s collections in, “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” which is also the name of the story, is about a young man named Julian who just graduated from college and is living with his mother whom he seems to have a constant battle with, mainly due to her racist feeling she has towards black people. Early on in the story Julian states, “…in spite of all her foolish views, he was free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts.” (O’Connor 12)  He saying this lets the reader understand that there is turmoil between him and his mother due to their different beliefs.  It is not until the end of this story that Julian’s Mother is faced with the realistic truth that black people were equal and it was no longer acceptable to treat them in a non equal way.  Julian lectures his mother on just how inappropriate her actions were, "What all this means, is that the old world is gone.  The old manners are obsolete and your graciousness is not worth a damn." (O'Connor 21)  What is ironic about this story is that Julian’s mother ends up dying at the end of the story.  As if this shock of information about how inappropriate she truly was killed her and Julian is left in despair and guilt.  

            Taking a second look at the first short story “Everything that Rises Must Converge” one can begin to understand just how much tension existed between black people and whites during this time.  An American critic by the name of Stanley Edgar Hyman took a much closer look into Flannery O’Connor and her stories.  Hyman explains about Julian and his mother, “It is beautifully foreshadowed from the story’s first sentence, but the characters, a travesty segregationist mother and a travesty integrationist son, are not adequate to the finely structured action”. (Hyman 27)  The main point of this story was Julian trying to upset his mother, by using a black person, since she is racist, because he knows that it would be the key to get under her skin quick and efficiently. Time and time again in the story one could gather how much Julian wanted his mother to feel the rath of her superior feelings toward black people.  O’Connor twist at the end in such a dramatic way that both sides seemed to be punished for their actions of being judgmental and arrogant of one anthers beliefs.

            For O’Connor being an author in such a time of change inspired her to have racism as a main theme in her short stories. A woman named Patricia Yaeger, who wrote “Dirt and Desire: Reconstructing Southern Women’s Writing”, also recognize the battle between blacks and whites in her stories.  Yaeger states one of the many underlying statements involving racism, “Third, these stories suggest the difficulty white southern culture in freeing itself from specters of ownership-from its obsession with African Americans as objects, as things to be owned-and the question of whether whites can allow a person who has been so commodified to ascend to the status of possessive individualism”. (Yaeger 40) As a reader, one can easily identify this battle.  O’Connor has strong feelings of resentment towards blacks by her white characters in some of her stories for wanting to be equal but, in the end it seems as though her white characters are the ones who die in some freakish way.

            Although some twentieth century literature could be thought of as racist and appalling, O’Connor did not only write about racism towards black people but also about white people.   In her short story “Revelation” Mrs. Turpin, the main character, is a very judgmental women towards just about everyone.  Unlike some of O’Connor’s other stories, racism towards black people isn’t the main theme here.  It is against “white trash” type of people.  Taking place mainly in a doctors waiting room, Mrs. Turpin, looks around judging the others waiting to see the doctor and thinks, “She could tell by the way they sat-kind of vacant and white-trashy, as if they would sit there until Doomsday if nobody called and told them to get up”. (O’Connor 194)  What is interesting in this particular short story is just how judgmental and nacicisitc one person can be.  Especially a lady who thinks of herself as saint like, thinking in her head how horrible the people around her are and taking a God like statue to decide which people are decent and which aren’t.

            Comparing the few stories in the collection, “Everything that Rises must Converge” presents the constant presents of racism while not discriminating races.  Robert Avis Donahoo Hewitt is a man who wrote a book called, “Flannery O’Connor In the Age of Terrorism: Essays on Violence and Grace.”  He says that, “The combination of power and humiliation that O’Connor builds into her characterization of blacks in this story is also what allows the statue to serve as a representation of Christ”. (Hewitt 136)  Although the representation of Christ is not clear, the power and humiliation are.  Most characters in her stories often lead to the down fall of the character that perceives them as being better or higher ranking in society than the one being dissected.

            In another one of O’Connor’s short stories, “Judgment Day” this story is a bit different from some of the others.  An older man, named Tanner moved from Alabama to New York so his daughter could take care of him.  When Tanner discovered a black man had moved into a neighboring apartment he was thrilled because this black man brought feelings of familiarity to this Southern raised man.  After getting a chance to introduce himself to the black man Tanner attempts to make small talk with the man and be friendly and says, “I thought you might know somewhere around here we could find s a pond, Preacher”. (O’Connor 262)  Tanner, assuming that this man was from the South, completely offends the black man who states he is neither a Preacher nor has any intent on finding a pond.  Tanner being a man from the South, he that life in the North is much different from that in the South and his way of approaching black people being friendly in his eyes is unacceptable.  An ironic twist to this story comes from the black man, “I don’t take no crap off no wool-hat red-neck son-of-a-bitch peckerwood old basterd like you.” (O’Connor 263)  O’Connor not only writes about racism happening towards black people but white people as well.  This era was full of mixed feelings between the two races and O’Connor does well to incorporate both sides.

            O’Connor used much of the same character base for her stories.  There always seems to be a good mix of white people and black people.  The way O’Connor decides to incorporate which ever group she decides one can always count on racism of a group present.  Hyman says it best, “As this suggest, not only do images and symbols recur, but fixed grouping of people recur, and certain figures in these fixed groups are consistently travestied” (Hyman 30)  Not only are black people constantly judged in O’Connor’s stories, but she also targets whites by using such words as, white trash and peckerwood which could be interpreted as racist toward white people.  The continual battle between the groups of characters in her stories, allow almost a comical feeling present of the ignorance of just how narrow minded people where in that era.

            Flannery O’Connor was considered a great author of her time.  Her stories were unique and funny but at the same token disturbing.  She lived through one of our nation’s most intense times of Jim Crow Laws and intergrading blacks and whites together as equals.  She showed no favoritism to either race but had consistent criticizing of different characters throughout her stories.  From blacks to white trash to a young girl who was a slut, there was a bit of everything in each story.  Of the many themes present her battle of judgmental characters and racism intertwined in her unique stories was a great theme that makes Flannery O’Connor such a different and great writer.

Works Cited

Hewitt, Avis Donahoo, Robert. “Flannery O'Connor in the Age of Terrorism : Essays on Violence and Grace”: University of Tennessee Press.  April  2010.

Hyman, Stanley Edgar. “Flannery O’Connor - American Writers 54” : University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers No. 54. University of Minnesota Press.  1996.

O’Connor, Flannery. “Everything that Rises Must Converge” : Ninth Printing and Ambassador Books Ltd., Toronto. 1970.

Sykes, John D. “Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and the Aesthetic of Revelation” : University of Missouri Press.  Columbia, MO, USA. 2007

Yaeger, Patricia. “Dirt and Desire : Reconstructing Southern Women's Writing, 1930-1990” University of Chicago Press. July 2000.

Bibliography: Post 11

 Flannery O'Connor - American Writers 54 : University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers No. 54 Hyman, Stanley Edgar


    Although this author doesn't really write about the main theme of my paper, this will still be useful because it gives great detail about O'Connors life and what events happened that contributed to her as an author.  It gives a good timeline of her many successful stories and gives a little description about a few of the main ones.  He does well to to give a little help to my thesis in pointing out a few ironic points in her book of course, concerning black people and there actions or characteristics about their parts in her story.   




Flannery O'Connor in the Age of Terrorism : Essays on Violence and Grace
Hewitt, Avis Donahoo, Robert 


      This particular author compares many of O'Connors major subjects in her short stories.  He writes about how her characters in her stories can be compared to zombies and negative figures.  He also speaks of her often use of religion and its many incorporation in her stories.  A main topic spoke of in his book is racism.  This having a major part in my thesis for my paper makes him a key author for me to use and allows for many quotes to tie my paper together.  To conclude, this book talks a lot on how Flannery O'Connor writes and about the many short stories she has written and will be very valuable to my paper.  

 Recent American Novelists - American Writers 22 : University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers No. 22 Ludwig, Jack 

After reading Ludwig's book he writes about O'Connor and some other similar authors with the same styles as she has.  He speaks of how in 20th century southern literature revolves around heir ways and its many issues when African Americans were looked at as less equal than white people.  He talks about other popular authors that had similar styles to O'Connor and how they all seemed to be based around blacks, Bible, and violence.  He makes great strides to show how even though she does write dark literature, it is suppose to have some comic relief for the story.  This will be a strong point in my paper and ultimately help to make me paper thesis strong and add a different perspective of comparison to other authors of the time.   




Dirt and Desire : Reconstructing Southern Women's Writing, 1930-1990
Yaeger, Patricia 


      This book is going to be a great secondary source for my paper.  It is based on southern women writers which Flannery O'Connor is.  Living in Georgia her entire life being raised in a time where blacks were treated less than equal this author, Patricia Yaeger, talks about monstrosity and violence present in O'Connors stories.  Her use in describing certain things in her stories that is in some way or another tied to her feelings of racism and how things were in Georgia in the mid 20th century with black people and the Jim Crow Laws. Yaeger also speaks of O'Connors inner battle with the way things were before with black people and the changes that are slowly making everything change for southerners. 

Final Project Blog

    For the final project I've decided to complete option one and I choose Flannery O'Conner for an author.  I choose option one instead of two because I'm interested in trying to make connections of similarities between some of her short stories.  I enjoy reading short stories and I've never read any of her work before.  So it'll be interesting to see her style of writing.  The primary text I have chosen to use is called, "Everything That Rises Must Converge."  
    In my final project I hope to be able to complete the assignment with great success.  The project is a little intimidating right now but I will just take it one step at a time and do the best I can.  I hope to transition between paragraphs well and find all the sources I need to make this a great essay.   I mostly plan on using the college library link and the internet as secondary sources and find sites where critics have commented on her stories.




This image came from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery_O'Connor

Blog #9 Letter

Dear Ms. Cline,
     This is my third semester straight of taking an English class and lets just say it's been quite the challenge thus far.  It started off a bit rough for me trying to find the time to complete my assignments but it's been much better lately and honestly this is by far the best English class I've taken out of the three.
     So far I'm most proud of my 2nd essay that I wrote on analyzing poetry.    Not only was that a challenging assignment but it was very interesting.  Although my grade did not improve much from my rough draft to the final draft, I feel that I had found the deeper meaning in the poem that I had missed before.  It was my first experience with dark poetry and it was one of the best and most meaningful poems I've read.
    In the other two English classes I have taken in college there has been witting assignments.  Nothing like analyzing poetry though.  The best part about writing a paper about analyzing poetry is every reader takes the meaning of the poem differently.  So there really is no real answer but how it affects the reader.
   For the remainder of this class I hope to improve my writing skills greatly and pass this class with an "A" because I know I can.  I feel that you are a great instructor and really care what your students are learning and how we are progressing.  It is also really nice that you are there to answer questions and direction with assignments.
     Sincerely,
     Lindsey Blakley

Creation Essay Draft #3

Lindsey Blakley         

Laura Cline

English 102

11 October 2011

Creation 

            “Frankenstein,” written by Mary Shelley, was a great novel of its time.  There were many different themes present on the surface of this great tale but the underlying objective was much stronger and gave the novel its great success.  Femininity played a key part in a non direct way in this novel.  During a time where femininity was present but not acknowledged all to often, Mary Shelley produced a novel that was written to invoke her readers with fear; with an idea that is both impossible and turns out to be a catastrophe for two characters in the book by producing the un-natural idea of a man creating life and struggle with motherhood itself.

            Mary Shelley life was all too often filled with sadness and death.  Her mother dying shortly after the birth of Mary was a very well known feminist writer.  It is partly due to her that Mary incorporates the idea of femininity into her novel.  The theme is established early on by a main role character named Victor Frankenstein.  A young man intrigued by natural science decides he will do the impossible and give life to a human like creator.  The reader can quickly identify that Victor is succeeds in this task to reproduce an act that only a women can do and give birth, “I succeeded in discovering the cause of generation and life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.” (Shelley 30)  Victor’s excitement is quickly overtaken by disgust and fear as he realizes he has created a hideous monster.  This being the first example of Shelley stating that only women can fulfill such a duty that Victor has attempted to take on.

            Victor Frankenstein quickly rejects his creation as soon as it comes to life.  He finds his creator not what he had expected at all.  Previously expecting to feel accomplished and proud Victor finds himself sickened by the idea of what he has done.  Just minutes after the monsters animation Victor ran and states, “…catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life.” (Shelley 35)  One could compare Victor’s feelings and reaction to the same feelings a mother has soon after giving birth to an unwanted baby.  Quickly abandoning it and fleeing with fear of the question: what is next?  Men are not physically or mentally capable of giving birth to a child and therefore this situation can only result in failure as it is not natural.

            Ellen Mores, literary critic who is a most famous for being a feminist critic, wrote a modern criticism about the novel Frankenstein.  She as well feels that there are many examples of the use of femininity in this novel.  She states, “Here, I think, is where Mary Shelly’s book is most interesting, most powerful, and most feminine: in the motif of revulsion against newborn life, and the drama of guilt, dread, and flight surrounding birth and its consequence.”(Mores 218) I completely agree with Mores.  Mores writes about how Mary’s life can be compared to the novel with great similarities.  Obvious to any reader familiar with the novel and Mary’s life can agree with her when she says, “Here her intention to underline the birth myth in Frankenstein becomes most evident, quite apart from biographical evidence about its author.” (Mores 224)

            The monster continually addresses Victor Frankenstein as his creator and often speaks of feelings of anger and abandonment.  This represents the same sort of relationship that a mother and child have.  During the first real meeting between the two the monster says, “I learned from your papers that you were my father, my creator; to whom could I apply more fitness than to him who had given me life?” (Shelley 94)  Him addressing Victor in this way, as an actual parent that gave birth to him is a mockery of creation.  In Victors success in bring life to a lifeless object he has left a lonely unwanted thing that not even his creator can bare to look at.

            Barbara Johnson, who is an American literary critic, wrote a very interesting response to the novel Frankenstein.  Similar to Mores she too feels there is femininity present in the novel in terms of creation and life.  She states, “On the other hand, the story of Frankenstein is, after all, the story of a man who usurps the female role by physically giving birth to a child.” (Johnson 248)  Shelley gives Victor the ability to “give birth” to a living person, which in real life is completely unrealistic and impossible.  Johnson states, “…should have fictively transposed her own frustrated female pen envy into a tale of catastrophic male womb envy.” (Johnson 248)  This is an interesting interpretation of what is going on with Shelley.  She was at the time closely working on ghost stories with her husband Percy Shelley and other great writers.  Mary being surrounded with great writers always in her life, starting with her parents, made her a great writer.  Maybe she did feel feelings of being inadequate thought compared to the others and that was one of her reasons of giving a man abilities that only a women could fulfill.

            When Victor is faced with the proposition of creating another monster, a female companion for his monster, Victor agrees with the promise the Monster and his mate will never come around again.  Shelley once again gives Victor the ability to do the impossible.  But at the last moment Victor comes to the realization that this could potentially be another huge mistake that will haunt him forever.  This whole section can be compared with the idea of abortion.  Ending a life that doesn’t have a chance to exist which again is something that can only be done by women.  Indirectly it is as if Mary is pointing out all the very important roles that women play in the creation of mankind.

            Susan Winnett, who was also a literary critic that wrote a response to Frankenstein, supports the evidence of femininity in the novel. She states, “…his indulgence in the retrospective mode of “male” sense making keeps him form acknowledging his ongoing responsibility to the birth he clones as well as from seeing that hence forth his plot inevitably involves the consequence of an act of creation that he regards as a triumph in and of itself.” (Winnett 295)  She continues on to say that Victor has this idea backwards in a sense because with the production of life should stem something beautiful and life lasting, but does the opposite for Victor.  Just another example of what terrible events occur due to the unnatural “birth” by a man. 

            The night that Victor and Elizabeth wed represents a time of fear and anticipation for poor Victor.  He is haunted by the thoughts that his monster is near and has harsh intentions towards his newly found happiness.  With the monster killing Victors last true love, the monster wins this battle of monster vs. creator.  Victor created an innocent soul and through rejection and hatred turned him into a murder.  This particular situation represents the near completion of Victor creating life with Elizabeth just to have it ripped from his grasps by his obsession of to cheat Mother Nature and give life where he should not have toiled.

            In conclusion of the novel both characters are over come with hatred of one another.  Victor’s creation that began as a goal that consumed him to the very soul ended up consuming him and everyone he loved.  The other authors that were quoted from support my idea that the basis of this novel is circled around femininity and the idea of creation.  The idea that creation could be fulfilled by a man instead of women is an insane idea that Shelley purposes in this novel and to no surprise ends in disappoint and failure in both Victor and his Monster.

Works Cited

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1996. Print

Moers, Ellen. “Female Gothic: The Monster’s Mother.” New York Review of Books. Garden                          City: Doubleday, 1976. 214-44. Print.

Johnson, Barbara. “My Monster/Myself”: Diacritics 12.2 (1982): A Norton Critical Ed. New York, London: WW Norton & Company, 191. Print.

Winnett,Susan. “Coming Unstrung”: A Norton Critical Ed. New York, London: WW Norton & Company,
 

           

           

Summary of a Critical Response Barbara Johnson

  I chose to write about Barbara Johnson's criticism of Frankenstein.  Barbara Johnson was a American literary critic and translator.  During her writing,"My Mother/Myself," she compares three different books, including Frankenstein, to motherhood and also tries to prove them as feminine autobiography's.  Barbara Johnson compares the relationships between Victor Frankenstein and the monster to that of a mother and her child.  She continues to say that Victors creation is that of an unwanted or abandoned baby of a mother. Knowing that Mary Shelley's mother died while giving birth to her and then Mary herself baring four children and only seeing one live past infancy is a strong point to her novel, Frankenstein, somewhat  resembling events of Mary's life. Johnson concluded her writing by stating, that even though Mary's novel had only strong male role's, the underlying message that men cannot create life without terrible consequences proves that her criticism that this novel could be compared to a feminine autobiography.
  After reading Frankenstein and then Barbara Johnson's literary criticism it allowed me to see the underlying theme in this story.  I didn't personally make the connection between the events of the novel and the events of Mary Shelley's life personally.  During the 1800's it was uncommon for a women to be such a successful writer especially in this type of novel so she had to be discrete about her feminine points as well.  I feel that this would be a good topic to write about since there are so many different topics to discuss that all revolve around the novel, it is for sure to be quiet interesting.


Image from: http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2009/09/barbara-johnson-remembered.html

Reflections on Revisions

   When I begin to write a paper getting the first paragraph done is by far the most challenging part.  I try and keep the first paragraph as a generalization of what is to come, but of course trying to create a strong thesis that will allow me to build and branch the essay from there.  
   In high school I learned to write a rough draft and then correct that draft and then write a final draft.  My biggest problem with writing so many drafts is that I become very indecisive and sometimes have the tendency to re-write the entire thing will a whole different angle.  So I find it much easier, personally, to just get on the computer and type away.  No writing a rough draft and then typing it up just type the paper and go from there.  I love getting an opinion on what I've written and make changes as necessary.
   After receiving my draft for essay #2 back I need to revise quite a lot.  Mostly and wording and spelling of words.  What I plan to do is take all the comments from the teacher and off the blog and take a much closer look there first.  After all those are fixed I will re-read and add to or take away no useful material and just basically clean it up.  I will then allow someone else to read it and tell me their opinion about what I have written and take suggestion down on a piece of paper.  Last but not least I will re-read again and add the suggestions in where ever I feel and turn in the final piece and hope for the best!

http://photos2.fotosearch.com/bthumb/CSP/CSP291/k2918564.jpg

Frankenstein

"The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature.  I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate object.  For this I had deprived myself of rest and health." (Shelly 34)

   I feel this group of sentences is very important to this novel.  These three sentences start a path of Victor Frankenstein life and maintains through the reaming pages.  The novel starts with Victor's obsession with bring life to something that is not living.  At this point he feels excitement in his creation.  Admiring his hard work and all the time and effort he has put into it.  As soon as Victor fulfills his goal he soon realizes that he cannot even bare the sight of this horrible creature that he has brought life to and soon begins his regret.
   Through the remaining of the two volumes we see Victor's struggles in his life, death of his loved one, and the anguish in which he feels of creating this terrible monster.  What is also an interesting point is that his creature has many of the same feelings that Victor does.  Taking a deep look into where this passage is put in the novel adds much more to the meaning.  Victors hold his long obsession with this creature, but it changes from wanting to give it life to wanting to destroy it.  Remaining consumed with disgust and agony of his actions Victor finds himself falling ill quite often. Any moment that he feels he may have found some sort of happiness or relief through his family or friends it is taken away by his creature and he is left in sorrow and misery.  From this point on in the novel, Victor's path is paved with a constant battle between him and his creature.

http://listverse.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/young-frankenstein-bh02.jpg

Essay #2

Lindsey Blakley
Cline
English 102
17 September 2011

Windigo

Louise Erdrich’s poem Windigo is a very unique poem.  She relies heavily on imagery to tell the story of the mythical creature.  Imagery is a tool used in poetry to describe very specifically what is happening in a poem.  This particular poem provides many examples of how imagery is utilized as a valuable tool to grasp the readers senses and feelings and intensify them through the poem and paint a vivid picture of the events taking place.  
From the very beginning of this poem Erdrich does a great job of setting the place and mood through much detail. “and the dog crept off, groaning,/to the deepest part of the woods.” (Erdrich lines 4-5)  These two lines in the beginning of the poem let the reader get an idea of the whereabouts and adds a bit of a spooky sense in the air with the actions the dog is doing.  The use of these very specific words of the dog creeping off and groaning while doing so got me thinking why is the dog leaving?  What is so intimidating that a dog would cower to?  The speaker is obviously the Windigo itself who is observing his next pray perhaps.
Since the Windigo has been identified as the speaker, Erdrich continues using dark imagery to provide a good picture of what is going on.  “In the hackles of the dry brush a thin laughter started up.” (line 6)  Hackles, is a word that is used to describe a which or  an evil creature laughing in an eerie way.  For her to use this word to describe the way the bushes sound adds a chilling sense. Then to follow it with a thin laughter started up, tells me that a child is present and that is what the Windigo is watching and wanting. “Mother scolded the food warm and smooth in the pot/ and called you to eat.” (lines 7-8) The use of the word scolded in this sentence and what the mother was doing is a bit weird to me.  She angrily made the food hot? “But I spoke in the cold trees:/ New one, I have come for you, child hide and lie still.” (lines 9-10)  This mystery is slowly coming together and giving very intense feeling of fright.  Knowing that this huge creature has been waiting and watching from the forest for the perfect time to grab this child sends feeling of nervousness and anticipation of what is to follow.
“You saw me drag toward you./ Oh touch me, I murmured, and licked the soles of your feet./ You dug your hands into my pale, melting fur. (lines 13-15)  This group of sentences is full of important imagery!   As the reader, I am actually feeling afraid and anxious.  Picturing this huge creature coming towards a small child, grabbing the child by the legs and licking their shoes while the child is franticly trying to fight and get away.  Also, now through more specific imagery of what this beast looks like, Erdrich has succeeded thus far in grasping my attention and bringing this story to life through the feelings being stimulated and imagination.
As I continue to read and analyze this poem it is very clear to me this poem’s purpose is to produce fear. “I stole you off, a huge thing in my bristling armor.” (line 16)  This line is a bit confusing to me.  The Windigo is suppose to be this huge creature and a child would be quite small compared to this beastly creature.  So I’m puzzled on that part.  But the fact that Erdrich choose to use the word “bristling” was quite interesting to me.  Earlier in the poem she used “scolded” to describe how the mother was making food.  Both scolded and bristling are words that have angry context to them enhancing the poems main point again or maintaining this dark and scary feeling.  “Steam rolled from my wintry arms, each leaf shivered/ from the bushes we passed/ until they stood, naked, spread like the cleaned spines of fish.” (line17-19)  Picturing this large creature running through the woods and leaving a path of bare bushes along the way really allowed me to create an adequate image of just how quick and powerful this creature is.  Another good use of imagery are the two words steam and wintry.  These two words indicate that this poem is still in a wintry time frame when it’s cold and miserable.
As the poem is coming to an end, many questions and feelings are running through my head.  Is the child ok?  Is the Windigo going to kill this child?  “Then your arm hands hummed over and shoveled themselves full/ of ice and the snow.”  (line20-21)  To me this indicated the child is alive since his hands are warm.  Also that the Windigo was releasing the child since the child was grabbing handfuls of snow and ice.  I feel the child is afraid and trying hard to get away. “all night running, until at last morning broke the cold earth/ and I carried you home, a river shaking in the sun.”  (line 22-24)  The end to this poem offers a sense of relief. The Windigo returns the child after having them all night.  It’s interesting to me the words “a river shaking in the sun.”  What I’m comparing this to is a river sparkling from the sun’s ray’s bounce off the water.  The child is relived and safe at home again as a new day begins.
After reading this poem two dozen or so times, I feel Erdrich utilizes imagery as a major tool that accomplishes the goal of creating a monstrosity poem.  Every aspect of this poem is crawling with very descriptive words and groups of words.  For a reader not knowing what a Windigo is, this poem informs the reader without giving a dictionary explanation. After carefully reading this I can honestly say there were many moments of feelings of fear an anticipation of what was coming next.  Imagery, I feel, made this poem a success and a very good piece of work.

Works Cited

Erdrich, Louise. “Windigo.”  http://poetry365.tumblr.com/post/692283573/windigo-louise-erdrich

I feel that I got the basic idea of how to analyze a poem but comments would be awesome!  Give me some feedback if you would.

Introductory Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfUjuGAdO8Q

Good Readers and Good Writers

   Nabokov believes in order to be a good reader one should not get to involved with a book.  For example, not go as far to associate ones self to deeply with a specific character or the time in which the book takes place.  He believes that their should be a line drawn between simply enjoying the book without personal relation and appreciating its artistic form.  Personally, I don't really agree with not being fully consumed personally in a book.  That is what makes the book so interesting sometimes.  I do agree with a few of Nabokov definitions of being a good reader.

  I feel that if it's the right type of book I'm a very good reader.  Even if the book doesn't fully catch my attention, reading for comprehension is something I do fairly well.  I believe in order to be a good reader one has to have a very long attention spam and an huge imagination.  Having a rather large vocabulary also is helpful to avid readers.