Blog Option 4

Uncharted Territory

When I entered high school it was a foreign land to me. I was new to the system of how classes were arranged and to how the roles of the individuals were set up. I related this to the reading from Herland. In the reading, Terry, Van, and Jeff throw themselves into a completely new and different world run only by women. When they first arrive, they notice 3 young women, who they would later marry, are watching them. They were being watched because they were different outsiders. Entering high school, the freshmen are the newbies. The little ones. The outsiders. Even though the older ones were just recently freshmen, they still, in a sense, don’t understand them when they view the little ones roaming the halls. As time goes on in Herland, the characters all become more acquainted with each other and the men are taught the ways of the women. I could completely relate this to my growth through high school. I played soccer throughout high school and the older players were always there to guide me and show me the roped of the academic jungle I had to navigate. I was taught history and things in class while learning social norms, just like in the reading. In the end of the book, Van and Terry both leave while Jeff stays. Some kids from high school hated it and wanted to just get out, like Terry. Some people appreciated the experience and used it positively to progress towards college or a job, like Van. Others, believe it or not, got jobs at the high and stayed as assistant coaches for different sports, like Jeff. All three characters that arrived ended up leaving or staying in a way that I could relate to high school. It was interesting to see the book this way, through an experience that lasted me 4 years. I appreciated the reading. It was very interesting.

Blogg #5

In the novel Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gillman was trying to convey a message pertaining to women empowerment. In the town of Herland, the women bond together and create their own society. There have been no men around for over 2000 years. Without men the women have no one to compete with and thus they are strong, intelligent, and independent. They can even bear children on their own. This is an excellent parallel to women of today. Although a male may help a women conceive children the responsibility ultimately lies with her. She must carry the child for nine months. Due to sex role expectation the mother usually takes on the role as primary caretaker.
When the women see Terry, Jeff, and Van they are not reluctant to talk with them. In fact they run away but there is something about them that intrigues the women's interest. At the beginning of their arrival you see that the men are very closed minded to the idea of an all female town. As the story progress you see each of the male characters evolve. That is all except but Terry. In this story Terry reminds me of a man in this day an age that is jealous of the success of the female. Terry is a very "maucho" man. He wants Alima to do what he wasn't when he wants. He even goes as far as to try and rape her when she would not give it to him. In this instance you see how strong the community really is. The community bonds together and votes Terry out.
I liked the ultimate them  of the story, however, I would not recommend it to others.If I had to rate it I would give this article a 3. The story to me was not one of the most interesting. In fact I had to keep making myself pick up the book and read. Due to the time in which this article is written, the language used in the book make it very dull. If only Charlotte Perkins Gillam could have kept the audience on the edge of their chair like authors of popular short-stories such as The Lottery, or the novel Their eyes were watching God.

Option #5, "Sucker" by Carson McCullers

Alexandra Smith

In Carson McCuller’s short story, “Sucker”, a coming of age plot could almost be argued versus a particular message trying to be conveyed. Pete, the protagonist, is sixteen and shares a room with his first cousin, Sucker, who is four years younger. At the beginning of the story, Pete is a sophomore in high school, described as a lack luster student, and seems to be a lonely character. It seems he doesn’t have a close relationship with his parents either and the only attention he receives in constant admiration from Sucker, which he doesn’t value at all, “My mother never bothered me because she had the younger kids to look after. And Sucker thought anything I did was always swell,” (McCullers 69). Pete’s relationship or involvement with other members of his family or even kids his own age at school is not really described or delved into. The main focus is his relationship with Sucker which can be summed up in Pete’s reflection back on the situation, “if a person admires you a lot you despise him and don’t care—and it is the person who doesn’t notice you that you are apt to admire,” (McCullers 69). In short, Pete admires and chases after Maybelle, a beautiful senior girl at his high school. At the beginning, she ignored him and he in turn ignored or was mean to Sucker. For the brief period that Maybelle faked interest in Pete, he was nice to Sucker and they grew closer together, “you understand people better when you are happy than when something is worrying you,” (McCullers 70). When Maybelle started ignoring Pete again, his relationship with Sucker went sour and when she told him that she had never cared about it and for him to leave her alone, he was the meanest to Sucker than ever before. It important to notice that words as weapons are a motif in this short story. In Pete and Sucker’s last fight, Pete didn’t yell like usual, making his words cut Sucker deeper than ever, “if I’d talked loud or hit him it wouldn’t have been so bad. But my voice was slow and like I was very calm,” (McCullers 70). Throughout the short story, constant power plays between characters can be see—Maybelle over Pete and Pete over Sucker until the end when roles are reversed between the two boys, “I suppose I was mean to him lots of times. I guess I wanted to ignore somebody like Maybelle did me,” (McCullers 69). You can really see the shift in power at the end when Pete avoids being in the room with Sucker, is quiet when he is, and tries to only address him by his real name, Richard.

            Personally I would not recommend this short story to a friend and would rate it three stars out of five. I dislike the character Pete very much and it hurts my heart every time he is mean to Sucker, a young boy that is four years younger, quiet, admiring, and his parents had died in a car accident when he was a baby. All Sucker wants to do his connect with who he considers his big brother. Even more sad it that Pete knows when what he says affects Sucker, “you could always tell by Sucker’s face when his feelings were hurt,” (McCullers 69). So I understand that McCuller is a talented writer and masterfully uses many literary techniques (such as her strategic use of silence), hence the three stars. The other two stars not given are because the piece just does not appeal to my personal taste due to the characters and the nature of the plot. Also, for how short the piece is, I would expect to be more “pulled” into the plot, but again my lack of enthusiasm is probably due to my empathy for Sucker and extreme dislike of Maybelle and Pete.

 

For my new media component, I have chosen the song “I’ve Been Watching You” by Rodney Akins. Although this depicts a relationship between father and son, the complete admiration and attentiveness reminds me how Sucker views Pete at the beginning of the short story.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rodneyatkins/watchingyou.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uzK3VwzraM

Alexandra Truong

Professor Waggoner

Intro to Womens Writing

6 March 2014

Blog Post Option #5: Critiquing The Awakening

The Awakening by Kate Chopin- though it was one of the earlier works we read this semester- has been by far my favorite. To me, the message that Chopin was trying to convey one of breaking social norms as well as being independent and honest as an individual rather than conforming to what society believes one should be, act, and even feel. The medium in which the message was presented was a deep, realistic, and relatable rhetoric. 

While I did not completely agree with the ending in which Edna “releases” herself to the sea in order to become “free”, I understand Chopin’s purpose for writing her in a manner. The ultimate freedom- both mentally and physically for Edna was inevitably to let herself drown in the ocean. It could be seen as her telling the audience that she was not only physically tired that she let herself go, but also just mentally exhausted with what society, her husband, family, and even friends expected from her. I appreciated her rebellion against the social norms that she was put up against when she pursued her passion of painting and moved away from those who normally surrounded her. Although I do not necessarily agree morally with her actions in taking a lover, I can appreciate Chopin’s boldness and blunt attempt to prove that being able to give in to one’s wants and desires above what others may expect is admirable. 

I would highly recommend this work to others for many reasons. Not only did I find it to be a semi easy read with a captivating plot line, I found that the characters were easy to relate to. Furthermore, I enjoyed that the piece of literature was more than a story- it had layers that many readers could relate to and understand. I think the ability to convey messages threaded within an entertaining story line above all else speaks volumes about an author. Such ability in my opinion is grounds for great literature because not only does it serve the purpose of entertainment but also truly evokes emotion and thought out of the reader. 

The Awakening is a piece of literature I would recommend to a friend. I appreciated the story and the message behind Kate Chopin’s eloquent wording. I truly think that many readers, not only women could find a way to not only appreciate this work, but also relate to it. 

Blog #5, Andrea Jumper

Herland critique

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s novel Herland, is a novel written to show that women do not need men to survive and that women are independent creatures who can do everything by themselves and better without men. In my opinion this is absurd. As much as some dislike hearing it, we need men to have a functioning world. Yes it is unquestionable that women are strong and independent and can do many, if not most things themselves. Often times women do a certain job or task exceedingly better than men.  As Gilman writes, the women of “Herland” have But men were put on the planet for a reason and despite all the things women can do on their own, men are a huge part of the puzzle. Biologically women, as a species, are designed to require men to reproduce and for protection. Women are instinctively dependent on men, the social status they can pass on, the protection they offer due to their genetically stronger bodies, and the natural need to reproduce.

Also in Gilman’s writing it seems that she is focusing so much on the women’s injustices that she forgets about the men. The descriptions of the three men are incredibly stereotypical and unfair. She writes of a womanizer, southern gentle, and the all around “good guy.” Writing with such narrow-minded stereotypes for men in the first place, in my opinion, ruined her credibility for writing a novel about the equality of women. Later on in the novel, the three men marry women from the Herland society. The only marriage that ends up working out in the end is that of the “good guy.” That in itself is defining the men and their relationship with women based on what she and the rest of society would automatically assume, not what is actually the case; which is what she is fighting in the case of women, but apparently not for men.

Giving this novel a 2.5 star rating, I would not recommend it to a friend, although it may have been ground-breaking at the time, I think it is tremendously prejudiced and one sided.

 

Blog #4

I chose to do Blog option number four and to blog about a particular character, situation, scene, or issue found in one of texts we read and relate to it on a personal level. This week in class we read Genesis on the Original sin. This story in the bible is about the failure of man and woman to obey God's specific demands. In the story God tells Adam and Eve, shameless and sinless beings, that they can eat from any tree on the Garden expect from one specific tree. One day Adam and Eve are walking through the Garden when the wildest and most sneaky animal in the Garden approaches them. In short, the snake convinces Eve that the fruit from the forbidden tree can be eaten despite what God has told them. Before this point in the story, the specific tree had not seemed so tempting to Adam and Eve. However, when the snake introduces this temptation into their minds they start to view the tree differently. Genesis states, "The woman stared at the fruit. It looked beautiful and tasty. She wanted the wisdom that it would give her, and she ate some of the fruit. Her husband was there with her, so she gave some to him, and he ate it too". When God finds out about this sin and confronts both Adam and Eve he gives them tremendous consequences for this sin. Including painful childbirth, shame, guilt, temptation, and the introduction of sin to humanity for eternity. 

I can relate this story to many experiences in my life but especially one in particular. One weekend in high school, my sister was having her sports award ceremony where she was going to receive a very special award for volleyball. My father and mother told me many times to not make any plans for that night since it was an important event to go to, plus we would all be hanging out after. Just how Adam and Eve had never really considered the fruits temptation a lot before the snake, I had never considered not going a huge temptation. However, when I was presented the idea by all of my friends to skip the awards ceremony and go to a bonfire out at the lake I suddenly became overwhelmed with temptation to disobey my parents. I thought about how fun swimming in the lake would be, warming up by the fire, and making smores' with my best friends. I thought about how the night would be just how Eve thought about how tasty the apple would taste. I longed for the freedom to do what I pleased and make my own decision. I decided to fake sick to skip the ceremony and joined my friends at the lake. My parents had originally planned to go to dinner after the ceremony which would have bought me more time. Their plans fell through when my mom got sick and needed to come home. I guess you could say my plans fell through as well when they didn't see me at home. They were furious the next day and gave me consequences just as God gave consequences to Adam and Eve. I was grounded for a week, and lost my cell phone. What was worse was I lost my parents trust that night. I should have listened to myself but I allowed my friends to influence my decision and gave into temptation. Sin is something that every person experiences in life and all though it is never going away it is important to reflect on your mistakes and try not to make the same one again. I never lie to my parents anymore!

Sofia Sidner, Option 3

In Amy Tan’s short story “Rules of the Game”, there is a general theme that touches on the idea of gender differences and how these differences play out in your life. In this short story, it discusses a young girl named Meimei and her passion for the game of chess. Not only is she passionate about chess, but she is also extremely talented at chess. She wins tournaments and was close to becoming a grand master at chess. However, in the story, when she approaches a man in the park playing chess and asks if he wants to play, he responds with “…’Little sister, it’s been awhile since I’ve played with dolls’” (Tan 3). Why would the old man assume that Meimei was asking him to play with dolls and not chess?

His assumption can be contributed to the fact that since birth, certain stereotypes are made with children and the types of toys they play with based on their gender. In an article written by Eleanor Muffit, it talks about how gender stereotypes are attached to children even before birth - parents paint girls’ rooms pink and paint boys’ rooms blue. When they purchase toys for their children, as Muffit states, you either “…take the blue lane, with miniature helicopters, chemistry sets and binoculars; or take the pink lane, with kitchens, dolls, and make up kits” (Muffit 1). It is rare for a little girl to be seen playing with “boy toys” such as trucks, legos, or tractors.

 

Gender stereotyping with toys is the main reason that the old man in the park assumes that Meimei wants to play with dolls. It probably never occurred to the man that Meimei is interested in other things besides dolls – especially chess. It is unfortunate that these stereotypes are so prevalent, not only in the short story but in today’s world. It is through these stereotypes that others judge people and often make inaccurate assumptions about someone’s likes, dislikes, opinions, or personality. This story is an excellent example of how we can break out of the gender stereotypes and how important it is to not let stereotypes affect you or what you are interested in.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10498316/Nows-the-time-to-end-the-boys-and-girls-toys-gender-divide.html

Blog Option #3

According to the Stephanie Hallett who is a writer for The Huffington Post, “It is estimated that just 8 percent of American women will keep their last names after marriage. That's down from a record high of about 23 percent in the nineties.” (Hallett) The women of Herland couldn’t understand why a woman would give up their name and take her husbands. “Change them? Do the Husbands then take the wives’ maiden names? Oh, no he laughed. The man keeps his own and gives it to her, too. Then she just loses hers and takes a new one-how unpleasant! We won’t do that!,” Alima said decidedly. (Gilman 138) 

“More than 60 percent of people polled agreed that women should take their husbands' last names after marriage, while less than half said a man should be allowed to take his wife's last name.” (Hallett) But the woman of Herland would disagree. Ones community, family, friends, and religion can all play a part in shaping identity. When you come from a community as small as the women of Herland you identity is all you have. Your last name is part of that identity. It’s is something you are born with. It can even play a part of the person you are with your family heritage.

       I felt an instant connection to this article and this topic in the text. I am getting married in a few months and this has come up a few times during conversation with my fiance. I typically just blow it off, but it is something that I am dreading actually sitting down and talking about. I, like the women of Herland think that taking your husbands last name is like losing a part of your identity. I am an only child and have a strong bond with my father. I feel as though I should keep my last name because that part of my identity that I don’t wish to part with. Maybe we can compromise with Reske-Huston? To be determined…

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland and Related Writings. Ed. Beth Sutton-Ramspeck. Buffalo: Broadview, NY. Print.

Hallett, Stephanie. "Changing Your Last Name: Survey Reveals How Americans Feel About Women, Men Changing Their Names." Huffington Post 14 Apr 2013, n. pag. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/14/changing-your-last-name_n_3073125.html>.