blogger.. my thoughts

Looking back on the past few weeks of using blogger I have a few thoughts. I feel as though it was very useful and valuable to me as a student, reader, and a writer. Being able to read my classmates' writing ideas helped me to become a better writer. I was able to understand the question or prompt better after seeing the way others directed their papers. A few times I would be confused of what I was asked to do but after seeing what others put I was able to understand the question and write a paper according.

I enjoy the blogger form of writing better than what I have done in the past. I enjoy putting my work up for people to see and well as I enjoy seeing others. This way I feel as though my work has a stronger purpose because not only with the teacher see it but my peers will too. This gives me a stronger will and motive to do good work. The comments they leave help me to better my writing in both a postive and negative way. The corrections people give me help me to further analyze my work. This is a good touch and resource to become a better writer.

I personally don't think it changed the community between my class or the other class it was just a way to communicate to one another and distribute our ideas. I do feel as though reading what the other class writes is a good new concept. I enjoy looking at the other classes posts and seeing the way they differ from my classrooms. Blogger in a way does combine our classrooms with helps us to expand our writing style.

The Great Gatsby - Frewrite!

For this week's post I have decided to choose the three quotes and use them to reflect on the story, The Great Gatsby. I will also compare them to Fitzgerald's life based on my opinion of their meaning. The first quote I am going to analyze is the following:

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.”
This quote applies to Fitzgerald's life in particular because as a writer he was probable referring to himself. When writing a book it takes a lot from the writer. Patience and wisdom. And that continuous struggle for greatness. This situation is similar to swimming and holding your breath. Your trying to get somewhere and trying vigorously to be patient to do it. So that when your book is finished or when your done playing in the water you can look back and know that holding your breath and the nights of agony were all worth it.

“My idea is always to reach my generation. The wise writer...writes for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever afterward.” This quote is Fitzgerald analyzing his own writing techniques. When I read this quote I thought back to the "Great Gatsby" and recalled how the story was set up around the 1920s, the time Fitzgerald grew up in. The novel discussed things that were happening all around him. The remarkable Jazz Age, the tragedy of World War I,levels of prosperity during the 1920s, and the high need for alcohol. Fitzgerald said that his idea is always to reach his generation and he did that outstandingly in "The Great Gatsby."

"That was always my experience—a poor boy in a rich town; a poor boy in a rich boy's school; a poor boy in a rich man's club at Princeton…I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works." This quote immediately turns my attention to "The Great Gatsby." The whole book's point of view was based upon a man who wasn't the richest guy in the world surrounded by some of the richest. Fitzgerald uses his personal life to set the storyline and background information for the main character in his greatest work, "The Great Gatsby."

Quotes from "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"All I kept thinking about, over and over, was ‘You can’t live forever; you can’t live forever.’" (page 36, chapter 2)

This quote was said by Mrs. Wilson when she describes the first time she meet Tom. Their first interaction with one another was when they were on the train. It was said that they began to make very flirty eye connection with one another. He then approaches her and they share a taxi cab and go home together. All awhile this is going on Mrs. Wilson is thinking" You cant live forever; you cant live forever." I really like this quote because I totally agree with it. You cannot live for the future because who knows if u make it that far. You have to live everyday as it is your last. Life if full of risks and bad decisions but those things make your life complete. Some day you will be old, hopefully, and you need those types of memories to look back on and laugh and say 'What was I thinking.' You only get one life so have fun with it you never know when its going to end.

A Lady
Music
The Taxi

Amy Lowell (1874-1925), born in Brookline, Massachusetts. She left private school at 17 to care for her elderly parents. Her poetic career began in 1902 when she saw Eleonora Duse, a famous actress, perform on stage. Overcome with Eleonora's beauty and talent, she wrote her first poem addressed to the actress. They met only a couple times and never developed a relationship, but Eleonora inspired many poems from Amy and triggered her career. Ada Russell, another actress, became the love of Amy's life. She met Ada in 1909 and they remained together until Amy's death in 1925. Amy wrote many, many poems about Ada. In the beginning, as with her previous poems about women, she wrote in such a way that only those who knew the inspiration for a poem would recognize its lesbian content. But as time went on, she censored her work less and less. By the time she wrote Pictures of the Floating World, her poems about Ada were much more blatantly erotic. The series "Planes of Personality: Two Speak Together" chronicles their relationship, including the intensely erotic poem "A Decade" that celebrates their tenth anniversary.

Lowell’s poem “A Lady” she is writing to one of her female lovers. She is describing her beauty and discussing everything she loves about her. For example, Lowell states, “and I grow mad with gazing at your blent colours.” Most of Lowell’s poems are said to be about her female lover and the relationship that they share.

Lowell’s poem “Music” to me is a complete free verse. It has no structure, rhyme scheme, or meter. TO me “Music” read as a short story. But what really attracted to me to this poem was detail she used in writing. The way she described this man playing his flute with such vivid images kept me indulged in her poem. The tone in the poem was very calm and passionate.

Lowell's poem "The Taxi" was a very beautiful poem. The care and passion shown through this piece of writing was breathtaking . In this poem Lowell shows the love and affection she shows for another person. The first line "When I go away from you" sets the whole tone and feeling of the poem. Just from this opening line I can sense that the poem with portray love in a powerful and visual way.

I personally do not understand the idea behind a poem or poet being distinctly American. I don't understand how you can tell if the writing or the person behind the writing is from a certain place. Lowell is American but when reading her work you wouldn't ask yourself where she was from because you can easily get lost in her words and taking to a place far away anyway. But in my personal opinion poetry is poetry no matter where you are from.

kate chopin

The writings of Kate Chopin do not compare to the ones of America Romantics that we read. Romanticism greatly differs from the Realism that Kate Chopin bases her two stories “Lilacs” and “A Pair of Silk Stockings” on. Romanticism is the idea of using strong emotion and imagination to describe the true beauty of nature. Kate Chopin’s “Lilacs” does have a hint of Romanticism however. She uses images that describe the Romanticism idea by stating “And I never smell the sweet scented honeysuckle without living again through the blessed day of my first communion" and other descriptive images like “At the very first whiff of a lilac blossom, I am gone! There is no holding me back.” With these lines incorporated in her story you would assume that maybe it would be based on American Romanticism, but after reading the rest of her story you realize that it has the entire feel of American Realism. American Realism is based upon the idea in the visual arts and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation. In the story “Lilacs” Adrienne banned from the convent because of her life style. She is thought of to be too wild and is not accepted by the other nuns. And the story “A Pair of Silk Stockings” deals with the idea of putting yourself before others. Both of these stories deal with reality and ideas that people go through on an average day.

Kate Chopin’s stories pertain to the idea of a woman’s search for selfhood. This theme appears in both stories, “Lilacs” and “A Pair of Silk Stockings.” In “Lilacs” A woman named Adrienne lives a double life. She stays in Paris with her servant Sophie and lives a life full of “sin.” But when she returns back to the convent she tries to redirect her life by the way of the nuns. Mother Superior of the convent finds out about her other side and she is banned from the convent forever. The search that Adrienne made toward self discovery left her without half of herself. This story shows the line between being yourself and trying to find yourself. In the story “A Pair of Silk Stockings”, Mrs. Sommers runs across fifteen dollars her first thoughts were to spend it on her kids. But when the day ends it appears that all the money is gone and she is left with plenty of things she bought for herself. Mrs.Sommers tries to be a better mom for her children but ends up getting caught in the idea of spoiling herself. Both of the women in her story go on a personal search and both of them fail in one way or the other.

I don’t think that Kate Chopin is writing for just one set of readers. I think that she is honestly writing for whoever wants to read it. In both stories, “Lilacs” and “A Pair of Silk Stockings”, her writing deals with situations that women could find themselves in. In “Lilacs” a woman finds herself caught in an internal lie. In the end she ends up being banned from something bigger than herself, the convent. In “A Pair of Silk Stockings” a woman finds herself splurging on herself rather than taking care of her family. Both of these stories do use woman as the main characters but not only them go through situations like this. I think Kate Chopin’s stories are written to give advice to people going through real life problems.

As Kate Chopin’s reader, her stories did have a strong sense of woman life issues. I enjoyed reading “A Pair of Silk Stockings” more because I could better relate to the issue. I understand how hard it is to put others before yourself. So reading how the story unfolded didn’t blame me much.

“A dollar or two should be added to the price usually paid for Janie's shoes, which would insure their lasting an appreciable time longer than they usually did. She would buy so and so many yards of percale for new shirt waists for the boys and Janie and Mag. She had intended to make the old ones do by skilful patching. Mag should have another gown. She had seen some beautiful patterns, veritable bargains in the shop windows. And still there would be left enough for new stockings -- two pairs apiece -- and what darning that would save for a while! She would get caps for the boys and sailor-hats for the girls. The vision of her little brood looking fresh and dainty and new for once in their lives excited her and made her restless and wakeful with anticipation.”
After reading that paragraph I was drawn into the story of “A Pair of Silk Stockings.” The idea that a woman found money and her first thought was her children was very touching to me. I really hoped that Mrs.Sommers would go through with her plan. I was very disappointed when she ended up spending it all on herself. The way Chopin made Mrs.Sommers appear I really believed that she would do the right thing. The theme really shined reading this story.