Project Proposal

Although I have not fully committed to this idea, I am pretty sure I will be writing a literacy narrative for my final project. My literacy narrative will probably be a chronological recap of my semester in this class. I think the easiest way to do this will look back at the syllabus and my previous work, and talk about my original thoughts about everything, my doubts and how I overcame those, along with my struggles but also my success with this class.
I originally signed up for this class just because I figured it was an English class, and couldn't be too difficult. The course name "Literary Interpretations" made me think that we would be reading novels, and then writing papers on them. It never occurred to me that literature included many forms of writing that could all be analyzed...haikus, plays, longer poetry, short stories, memoirs. I still struggle with finding a purpose to picking apart and analyzing some forms of literature, which I will hopefully make more sense of and talk about in my final paper. Right now all of my ideas are scattered about my thoughts and feelings about literature, analyzing it, finding themes, writing poetry etc...but once again, hopefully it will all come together and I can make more sense of it in my final paper.
The literary texts I will use in my paper are probably the ones that were the most interesting to me, or ones I never really thought I would enjoy. I liked Sonny's Blues and my blog for it because it was personal to me, and reminded me of my brother. I also want to somehow include The Interpreter of Maladies, because I wrote my first literacy narrative on it and got an A on that. I was surprised that I was able to get at least two decent creative blogs out of this blogging, because at the beginning of the semester I thought it was going to be impossible. I had fun writing the How To, and my most recent Haikus, so I will also try to incorporate those, and the process of writing them, into my narrative.

Plum

Haikus based on Helen Chasin's "The Word Plum"

"The Word Plum"

Pout, push and full in the mouth
Luxury of self-love and savoring murmor
Like fruit, a tongue of pleasure


"The Plum"

Piercing the fruit's taut skin
Bitten into juice and tart flesh
Full in the mouth with pleasure

10 poems

1. Celebración- Pablo Neruda
2. November Winds- Anonymous
3. Alzheimer's: The Wife- C.K. Williams
4. Wan Chu's Wife in Bed- Richard Jones
5. The Death of Santa Clause- Charles Webb
6. So Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?- Ron Koertge
7. I am I am- Jim Morrison
8. La Migra- Pat Mora
9. The Rose- Donna Brock
10. Poetry- Marianne Moore

The Rose for Donna Brock is just a Haiku poem, but reminded me of a couple other rose poems we talked about in class. We always connected a rose with love and romance, but often came across a few poems that went against the traditional meaning of a rose. This poem does that as well. "The red blossom bends...and drips its dew to the ground...like a tear it falls." Tears to me often symbolize sadness, not so much love and romance.

Wan Chu's Wife in Bed is about a husband who often leaves his wife at home to sell trinkets in different China towns. While him and his wife lay in bed, he tells her how she is the only woman he will ever love and how his heart will always stay with her. The wife wishes to be able to lay awake all night in bed, but the end of the story has an ironic twist. The wife says that tomorrow night her husband will be miles away and she will be awake all night in bed with another man. To me, this poem does not have much meaning or poetic styles, but is more of a fun, easy to understand, free verse about love and infidelity.

Haikus (from class 3/19)

Eraser

Removing the mistakes from my paper
Back to staring at a blank page
A fresh start

Burning rubber to my page
Leaving traces of pink and lead
Words vanish

6 poems

1. The Vacuum- Howard Nemerov (603)
2. The Fury of Overshoes- Anne Sexton (606)
3. We Real Cool- Gwendolyn Brooks (655)
4. Sex Without Love- Sharon Olds (692)
5. Leaving the Motel- W.D. Snodgrass (621)
6. The Whipping- Robert Hayden (993)

I liked reading "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. While flipping through the pages of my Norton, I was first interested because of the length, and I saw that it was written in 1950 so I knew I wouldn't have to read any Shakespeare or old English type language. I liked how the author has a very care-free, laid back attitude about life. When she talks about "we," it is probably about her and her friends, and how they are living for the moment. It was a short, easy to understand, chill poem. I was also surprised to find out it was written by a woman in the 1950's. It seems rebellious of a women to write.

The other poem I want to write about is "Sex Without Love" by Sharon Olds. I was intrigued by this poem because of the writer's point of view, and almost felt somewhat offended and defensive while reading it. While some might say that the author simply just doesn't understand how people can have sex without love, I took her words as somewhat insulting. When she said "Wet as the children at birth whose mothers are going to give them away," made me think that she's saying because someone's mother had sex without love, and ended up giving the child up for adoption, the child is going to "mess up" also and have sex without love. I also got pissed when she said "they are like great runners: they know they are alone." To me it doesn't seem like she is really trying to understand how people have sex without love, but belittle those who have.

marks

Dear Linda,
Is it weird that I'm envious of your desperate housewife lifestyle? Cooking, cleaning, being with your family. It doesn't sound like that hard of a job, so what are you complaining about? Your family relies on you and you keep the household running. What do you think is going to happen if you decide to "drop out" ? I can guess that your husband will be ordering pizza and Chinese food for him and your kids to eat, he's going to go to work wearing a wrinkled oxford shirt and slacks and your kids will be wearing mismatched dirty socks, all while you're in your bedroom pouting because you're irritated and sick of being judged. If you're really that upset, spend your time talking about the problem with your family. Not complaining about them in a poem.

Alzheimer's- Kelly Cherry

The title of the poem, Alzheimer's, gave a clear indication about what this poem would be about. When talking or writing about Alzheimer's, it is rarely positive, so I knew this poem would most likely be sad. The poem is about is about a man with Alzheimer's, who has just been released from the hospital and is coming back home to his house he remembers, but his family who he does not. I find this poem interesting because of the sudden, distincitve changes you notice when reading about this man's disease. Towards the middle of the poem, it says how this man remembers his house, the walkway he built, his garage and his car. He also rememberes himself in his younger days, when he loved music. Only a couple lines later, at the end of the poem, the man struggles to remember who "this old, white-haired woman Standing here in the doorway, Welcoming him in" is (636). The speaker of this poem is the author, and the daughter of this man with Alzheimer's. Her role is to narrate the poem, and tell the ups and downs she sees her father go through when living with this disease. While reading this poem, I was reminded of my Grandma, who although doesn't have Alzheimer's, she is slowly forgetting a lot of things. Anyone can relate to this poem because almost everyone goes through a point in their life when they deal with an elderly grandparent, who seems to forget everything, even if it is something as important like their spouse. Because the poem ended with the old man not being abe to remember his wife, it left you with a sadness for the man and his family, which is what the author intended. Like "The Wedding Ring," I liked this poem beacuse of the simple language, and with that simple language the story of this man was easier understood.

Wedding Ring

"How does the wedding ring's situation- lying in a "basket / as if at the bottom of a well" - embody the marriage symbolized by the ring?" pg. 613

A basket at the bottom of a well seems lost and abandoned, which is exactly how the author feels about her wedding ring and marriage. She says that "nothing will come to fish it back up and onto my finger again," so therefore there is nothing left in the relationship that can save her once successful, now defeated marriage. Although this is a negative and somewhat depressing poem, it was one of the ones I enjoyed the most. This is probably because it was written in a modern language which made it more obvious and easier to understand, and even though I have never gone through a troubled marriage, her simple language makes it easier to relate to. The objects described in the second stanza ( "It lies among keys to abandoned houses, nails waiting to be needed and hammered into some wall, telephone numbers with no names attached, idle paperclips." ) created an image in my head to really understand how lost and helpless her marriage really is.

Interpreter of Maladies- Critical Response

Questions on pg. 298
1. For centuries philosophers have argued whether "nature" or "nurture" is the main shaping principle in our lives. In "Interpreter of Maladies," what details make the Indian-American Das family seem more "naturally" Indian or more "nurtured" by their American upbringing?

The Das family seems to be Indian only because of their looks and natural Indian heritage. When the Das family visited India, their tour guide, Mr. Kapasi, said that "The family looked Indian, but dressed as foreigners did" (284). This is one of the very few sentences in the story that would indicate that the Das family was Indian. The family is certainly not Indian by nurture; Mina and Raj "were both born in America, Born and Raised" (285). Throughout the story, Mr. and Mrs. Das do not speak of practicing any Indian language, beliefs, traditions or culture during their childhood, and it is apparent that they do not teach their children any of that either. When Mrs. Das was buying something from the man at the tea stall, Mr. Kapasi heard a man sing a Hindi love song to her, but "she did not appear to understand the words of the song, for she did not express irritation, or embarrassment, or react in any other way to the man's declarations" (285). From this passage, one could assume that Mrs. Das did not understand what the man was singing to her because the native language was not taught or spoken in her home. The only "India roots" the family seems to keep is when Mr. and Mrs. Das go to Assansol to visit their parents, and the trip they are currently taking. When Mrs. Das was telling Mr. Kapasi about how her and Mr. Das met, it seemed somewhat like an arranged marriage, something common in Indian cultures. She said, "Our parents were best friends who lived in the same town...We were sent upstairs to play together while our parents joked about our marriage...They never caught us at anything, though in a way I think it was all more or less a setup" (295). This was the only part in the story that gave a mild example of Mr. & Mrs. Das growing up with Indian traditions. The Das family's American upbringing had dominance over any "nurtured" Indian upbringing, further proving that the only thing keeping this family Indian is their heritage.

How To Lose All of Your Boyfriend's Trust

Find someone who is already skeptical and uneasy about being in a relationship. He already doesn't trust you a whole lot, but is willing to try. Two days after the relationship is "official," go out with your girl friends, have a few too many drinks, and cheat on him. All while he is back home and in bed with strep throat. For the next two months, he will have a feeling he's been cheated on but no specific reason why. All this time he will still be trying to trust you, but still scared you will hurt him. No matter what he says, deny it. Promise him you never did, and never would cheat on him. For a while he is still going to feel uneasy, but try as hard as he can to believe you because you promised. Tell him you love him everyday, but be sure to never admit what happened two months ago. While he was back home, and in bed with strep throat. Eventually, his feelings of betrayal are going to get stronger and he will trick you into telling him. He will demand over and over that you tell him what happened. Keep denying. Soon you will feel sick to your stomach for lying so much and the truth will come out. Congratulations, you now just lost any trust your boyfriend did have.

Sonny's Blues

While reading Sonny's Blues I constantly had one person in mind- my older brother Jim. Nearly everything about Sonny, from his drug addiction to his slow walk, reminded me of my brother and the struggles he is still trying to overcome. "I didn't want to believe that I'd ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out, in the condition I had already seen so many others" (89). I feel as if the author took my thoughts and feelings towards my brother out of my head, put them on paper and called them his own. I used to have the typical big brother/little sister relationship with Jim, but as I grew up I had to witness his downfall just like Sonny's older brother. Although he is not physically dead, he is mentally and emotionally and just like Sonny, "all that light in his face gone out."
My brother Jim was also in and out of my & my family's lives. After him being gone for so long, and unwilling to want treatment, there is nothing anyone can do to help. On page 91, when the man outside the school was talking to Sonny's older brother he said, "They'll send him away some place and they'll try to cure him. Maybe he'll even think he's kicked the habit. Then they'll let him loose...Listen, They'll let him out and then it'll just start all over again." This never-ending cycle of drug abuse, treatment, and failure also reminded me of my brother Jim and his struggle to recover. He has been in and out of rehab facilities but just like the man said, the hospitals took him in, gave him "treatment" and then set him free to be back on the streets and back to his problems.
Like Sonny, Jim was also once passionate and determined. He was passionate about his music, friends, and sports, but all of that disappeared once drugs became part of his life and he failed out of school. Trying to get through to Jim seemed exactly like Isabael's struggle to get through to Sonny. They both are "wrapped up in some cloud, some fire, some vision all his own; and there wasn't anyway to reach him" (101).
Unfortunately the story of my brother does not end as well as Sonny's. Nobody in our family has been able to get through to Jim like Sonny was able to with his brother. He is still out on the streets with the same problems, not in a nightclub playing the piano and accomplishing his dream of becoming a musician.

Emily

My name is Emily and I'm a freshman from a suburb about thirty minutes west of Chicago. I live in "the stable" in Britton Hall with my roommate Jessica Wright. I spend the majority of my summer in Grand Haven, Michigan so that's kind of how I ended up here at Western (even though ASU and USF were my top choices). I love summer and boats, and absoultely hate winter, snow and coldness. As of now, I have not declared a major but I plan on doing something with Spanish. Times up. Peace