Class Reflection

1) I feel that I have grown as a student in this class. I've never taken a literature course as a college student, and have not had to look closely at literature. I think I gained a better understanding of messages that are trying to be transmitted in literature that may not be seen with the first read through. 

The text Persepolis challenged my view of Iranians. I have stereotyped them as fanatics, and I think getting someone's personal experience was able to open my eyes a little bit. 

I think my writing has improved. I received good suggestions on how to incorporated quotes from texts into my paper. I've always struggled with that. I've also enjoyed the revision process. It's allowed me to look at my writing again, and I normally don't do that.

2) I really enjoyed reading The Bluest Eye, but that's because I've read Toni Morrison before and have liked her work. She has a beautiful way of writing, and there is a lot of depth to her stories. She sympathizes with almost all of her characters, or at least wrote in such a way to make me sympathize with them. I struggled with Shakespeare, but I didn't take as much time with his play as I did with the other literature we have discussed in class. I think I could have enjoyed him more if I had taken more time with his play. I also had a hard time deciphering his play. I really enjoyed the form of his play, but his language is not something I am used to, and I didn't always understand what was going on in the play.

3) My prejudice against graphic novels has been challenged. I've had preconceived notions of the lack of intelligence and maturity in graphic novels, but I have more respect for them now. I even recently ordered the graphic novel Maus online to read it over break. I never would have given it a chance before this class. I still have a harder time with graphic novels interpreting abstract ideas in the art. I've read articles on some of the graphic novels we have read and they interpret ideas about the panels by their spacing and ways the characters are drawn that I never would have seen.

4) I was challenged by the close reading assignment, and I enjoyed writing it. It allowed me to really dig into a book I really liked. Again, I've never really tried to look into a book I've been reading before and decipher deeper meanings in the text. It helped me enjoy the book even more. I don't think I liked discussing the response papers the day we were to turn them in. Some of the ideas people had were interesting, but most of the time we were talking about completely different things that didn't increase my understanding of the texts.

5) I do feel better prepared for thinking critically about literature. I know there is more to literature that I originally thought there was. I think I got out of this class exactly what I was hoping to get. I was exposed to different forms of literature I normally wouldn't have read myself as well as types of books that I already like but haven't read yet. We read classic as well as contemporary literature, and we discussed many ideas that texts discuss that are not always talked about. I don't think I could have asked for more.

Graphic MSND

I think to understand Gauman's interpretation of MSND one would have to have read the play first. There's a lot going on in the graphic version...the play itself is being put on for an audience of fantasy creatures. I don't think the graphic interpretation is distracting. I think it enhances the play. It adds new elements to it. I like how they show it would have been performed back in the day of Shakespeare and the sets on the sides of wagons. The panels show the fantasy world coming into Shakespeare's reality is interesting. I also like all the fantasy creatures that are watching the play. They're interesting and not as beautiful as one thinks of the fairy world. I usually think of tiny, thin, pretty females with wings.

Soliloquy MSND

Mid Summer Night's Dream  Act 3 Scene 2

HELENA

Lo, she is one of this confederacy!   - Hermia is one of this alliance of people
Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three  - Now she understands that all of them are together
To fashion this false sport, in spite of me. - To play a game on her
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid! - Bad Hermia! Bad!
Have you conspired, have you with these contrived - Have you really gone in with them on this charade?
To bait me with this foul derision? - To get me upset with this conspiracy?
Is all the counsel that we two have shared, - After all we have confided in each
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent, - The sisterly bond we have and all the time we've been together
When we have chid the hasty-footed time - We were babies together
For parting us,--O, is it all forgot? - Have you forgotten that
All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence? - We were childhood friends
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, - We are godlike...I really don't know what this is trying to say
Have with our needles created both one flower, - We stitched together!
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, - We cross stitched together AND sat on the same pillow doing it!
Both warbling of one song, both in one key, - We sang the same song together
As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds, - We were BFFs!
Had been incorporate. So we grow together, - We grew up together and were still really close
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, - Our roots are the same and they remained the same as we grew older
But yet an union in partition; - We were together although we parted
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; - We are conjoined twins
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; - We are soul mates
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, - We wore the same coat of armor
Due but to one and crowned with one crest. - We were born of the same father to inherit the family crest
And will you rent our ancient love asunder, - You will compromise our old friendship and bond
To join with men in scorning your poor friend? - by joining up with these guys and being mean to me
It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly: It isn't nice. It's not lady like.
Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, - Other women would think so too and tell you about it.
Though I alone do feel the injury. - but I'll suffer alone.

Helena thinks that Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius are playing a prank on her. She thinks this because all of the sudden Lysander and Demetrius are proclaiming their love for her and doting on her when they have never given her that attention before. I think it's funny, because she automatically thinks it is a cruel joke when two men give her affection. In addition to that, she thinks that Hermia would betray her after their life long friendship. That's ironic, because Helena betrayed Hermia to Demetrius to get his affection.

Midsummer Night's Dream

So I'm not sure of what all went on in this play. It took me reading almost the entirety of the play to realize Bottom's head had been turned into a donkey's head. I thought Helena and Hermia's exchange was most interesting. Helene thought they were all playing a trick on her and that Hermia was playing along, so she starts insulting Hermia and putting her down after she had been envious of her eyes in the beginning of the play. The only character that seemed to stay true to their original convictions was Hermia. Everyone else changed preferences on who they loved and admired. Anyway, I highlighted the part that shows Hermia and Helena's argument after Helena discovers that both Lysander and Demetrius are in love with her.

Persepolis Part 1

On page 101 the panels show Marjane's cousin visiting. He is on leave from the military. He had joined right when he joined the service. The last two panels on the page show poor kids from the country who are told the afterlife is better than Disneyland. The cousin, Shahab, says the kids are hypnotized and sent to die in battle. There is disgust in the way he discusses this. The last two panels are interesting because they have black backgrounds with the outline of people being drawn in white. At this point we know Marjane's family is very intellectual. Her cousin may not share the same ideas exactly, but he is able to think rationally unlike the fanatics who have taken over. It is one more example to illustrate the government's abuse of its people. This conflict has forged an identity of rebelliousness for Marjane. Her parents raised her to question authority, especially that of her government. The war further solidifies her opposition to the government. The poems we discussed Monday share this same sentiment. "Memorial Day for the War Dead" talks about the flag losing touch with reality. At this time, Iran lost touch with reality, or its people. Once someone comes to the realization that their government does not have the people's best interest in mind then it is hard to respect them.

Intersections

In Blankets, there is a panel on page 393 that shows an apple tree and topless Raina below it. It discusses the idea of temptation and compares Raina to Eve. I like this panel, because it brings up the point of women being viewed as the original temptresses in Genesis. They will lead you to sin by making you bite into the forbidden fruit. I also like how Craig's conflicted feelings are summed up in this panel. She is beautiful and attracted to him, but he still can't view it as innocent it has to be sin.
Also, on page 540 we see the picture that Craig drew on Raina's wall being painted over. It's like he is erasing her image or memory because he has finally gotten over her.

I think all of the texts we have read so far discuss feeling lost or being afraid of being an outcast. In American Born Chinese the main character denies his ethnicity to try and fit in. He doesn't want to be on the edge of the crowd he wants to feel included. This is also the case with the main character of The Bluest Eye; Claudia. She gets angry with Shirley Temple, because she feels that the image of Shirley discludes her from society. She feels on the outer fringes of beauty because Shirley is seen as the typical beautiful girl. Claudia does not disown her marginalized skin color, but her friend Pecola is convinced that beauty lies in Shirley's blue eyes. Pecola eventually becomes dillusional, and believes she has blue eyes due to circumstances she has been through. Oranges shows us Jeannette who struggles with fitting into her small world of relgion. She battles with her inner feelings and is afraid to be different than her congregation so superficially repents. Blankets shows a boy who is already outcast by his class mates. However, he is afraid of enternal torment, because he is already living it. This results in him trying to conform to the church's teachings and cast aside his passion for drawing and a girl. All of these books have main characters that feel outcast and are trying desparately to feel a part of something...whether it is the white majority or the religious teachings they've been raised in.

Blankets

Panel 1: page 51. The whole page is taken up by a panel with a smaller panel in it. It shows the main character with his hands clasped looking up saying "At that moment I knew what I wanted..." and then the larger panel shows him dancing in the clouds naked saying "I wanted heaven." I like this panel because the smaller panel is consumed by the bigger picture: heaven. Also the clouds from heaven go into the smaller panel. It's dreamlike. He is picturing himself in heaven. I think a really interesting part in there is that he is naked. He is bullied because of his skinny body, and there is hinting at that he may have been molested in the previous pages. This can result in shame about his body, but in heaven he may see himself free of his body.
Panel 1: page 59. The bottom panel shows three images of Craig. At the top of them is "I wanted to burn my memories." What's interesting about this is that his torso is drawn out, but his face is blurred slightly in the first image, more blurred in the second, and then the third image has no recognizable features of his face and then there is a split at the top of his head with what looks like flames coming out of it. There is torment in this. Obviously someone is tormented if they say they want to burn their memories, but the pictures shows an imagined effort to follow through.
Panel 3: page 127. I like the way this panel illustrates the effort of the furnace to kick on and when it finally does the hum in the picture surrounds the room. I think it is a beautiful way to illustrate the noise and the heat of the furnace enveloping the rec room.

The first part of the book talks about being young and wrapped up into religion and what it can positively do. Craig, the main character in "Blankets" is comforted by the fact that heaven could be a place where he doesn't experience pain. In "Oranges" the young Jeannette found comfort in her religion as well. However, when both characters get older their sexuality conflicts with the messages of the church. "Blankets" goes further into their problems with the bible, but they both address what the church doesn't do for them. Dickinson's poem "Some Keep the Sabbath" discusses the same idea of a building for a church is not what works for her. This is the eventual realization that both characters of "Blankets" and "Oranges" comes to.