Monday, April 28, 2008

Last Core Blog Ever!!

Although I wasn't a fan of the whole blogging thing at first, you have to admit that it is a really great way to get more from the class. Before the required blogging, I would just read straight through the story without pulling much out from it. But having the blogs forced me to take the time to stop at those half formulated thoughts that occurred in the middle of reading and analyze them. Rather than quickly reading through, I began to make more connections and think more about what was being said in the text. The blogs also caused me to create more connections between things. I even started connecting things between other classes and would start thinking of what to say in my blog before realizing that neither of those classes were Core so there was no blog to write them down for. Overall, the blogs ended up being a good way to get me thinking more, not just about my Core books and discussions, but all the books and discussions that are taking place in all my classes.

Monday, April 21, 2008

You Never Know What to Expect

I knew that our ninth text was in the form of a comic book beforehand, but I had no clue what to expect. It was a really touching story, reading about this girl and her life growing up during that time. In the beginning, she starts off with such naiveness, such as how she would be the next prophet so that she old people wouldn't suffer anymore, which I believe is how kids should be. By the time the story is finished though, she has grown past those simple times of believing she could be the next great prophet. Although she still had things to learn, she was forced to grow up way too quickly, even leaving her parents and her country at the young age of fourteen. I mean, by fourteen, you have grown and matured, but not enough to be leaving your parents with the possibility of never seeing them again.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Brokeback Mountain

So I just watched Brokeback Mountain the other day and the whole time while watching it I just kept thinking about how similar it was to Giovanni's Room. Both stories take place about the same time, when homosexuality was not accepted at all, especially by Americans. So, the two characters in the movie, Ennis and Jack, as well as David from Giovanni's Room, all kept their homosexuality a secret from everyone else, or at least try to. However, both David's fiancé and Ennis's wife find out and end up leaving. David's bad decision making skills which end up making him a jerk seem to be split between Ennis, who drinks a lot, and Jack, who ends up having multiple affairs with both men and women. In the end, Jack gets killed and Ennis is alone. Sounds familiar...

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Surprise!

I was a little surprised at the ending...because it actually had a concrete conclusion at the end! It's a first for this class, and a last. Although there are still things at the end left to discuss, we aren't left with the typical Core question of, "what just really happened??" White Castle leaves us wondering who is who, House of Mirth doesn't reveal whether Lily purposefully or accidentally kills herself, Sputnik Sweetheart never tells whether Sumire really returns, and The Age of Iron doesn't really tell if Mrs. Curren is dead. Baldwin does the best job out of these five books in wrapping up the basics for us. In the end, we know that Hella has left, Giovanni is either dead or about to be, and David is now forced to move on with his life with the freedom he dreaded from the beginning.

For Different Reasons

At one point in the story, both David and Hella want to be married to each other, but for different reasons. In the beginning of the book, David tells the reader that "nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom. I suppose this was why I asked her to marry me: to give myself something to be moored to" (5). Hella had a bit different thought process when deciding to marry David though. During a conversation between the two, she tells David, "I began to realize it in Spain-that I wasn't free, that I couldn't be free until I was attached-no, committed-to someone" (126). Interesting how David and Hella want the same thing, marriage, to obtain opposite results, one doesn't want the unbearable freedom while the other wants to be freed.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

"Oh," said Giovanni, "nobody likes to travel, especially not women."

I would have to disagree with Giovanni and his belief here. It seems like any time the mention of traveling abroad comes up, almost everyone here at Richmond lists off all the places they have been to already. I think I'm right to assume that at least part of the reason we go on these trips is because of the enjoyment we get from going to see more of the world than what we grew up around, as well as seeing the places we have only heard of before. It's a completely different learning experience between reading about something like the Colosseum and actually walking around inside of it. This is also why Richmond seems to push studying abroad for its students at some point during our four years here. Travel is a great way to enrich our education and get a different and better perspective on many things, why wouldn't someone like to travel?

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Restructuring the Building

I went to the lecture tonight by Ellen Bravo, expecting to be bored and not able to understand the speaker like all the other lectures I've been to this semester. However, she ended up having some very good points and kept the entire lecture interesting and somewhat entertaining! Although I've heard a lot of the feminist stuff before, she presented it all in a different way, rather than saying poor women are being beaten up by all the horrible men, she showed the change that is needed as a way to improve society for everyone. What really got me was that, out of the 167 countries in the world, there are only four that do not incorporate paid leave at most if not all jobs, one of these four is America. Supposedly America is such a great country, the land of opportunities, but people from other countries feel sorry for Americans that have to bring their children up in a society that doesn't allow for both family time and a good job. In class, we have been discussing the racial inequalities that affect our society, and while that is an important issue that needs to be solved, we need to realize that is not the only inequality taking place in our society.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

True Identity

"I wanted to find myself. This is an interesting phrase...which certainly does not mean what is says but betrays a nagging suspicion that something has been misplaced" (pg. 21).

To find ourselves. It is a phrase we have all heard many times and never really given much thought to. For my last paper I wrote about how, while it may appear that our identities have changed, our true identities never change, it just takes time for us to find it. Baldwin is right when he says that it is not something we have lost or misplaced as is inferred, it something that has always been there and always will be there. It is just a matter or whether or not you discover this true identity sometime in life or not.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Glass Ceiling's Creation

"The work of civilization has become increasingly the business of men, it confronts them with ever more difficult tasks and compels them to carry out instinctual sublimations of which women are little capable." (59)

This statement really stuck out to me, especially after taking a sociology class last semester and the discussion we had in class earlier this semester on a few of the issues that women still deal with because of the gender inequality in our society. In this statement, Freud appears to be sexist with his view of women as being little capable. Although he appears to be a bit biased on this issue, he does still mention that this view of women that society now has was not always so, but created by civilization. The first part of this sentence brings up how civilization is increasingly the business of men, not that men were always better than women in society. The inequality that exists in today's society was not always part of society, and maybe one day it will once again not be an issue in society.