Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Ordinary (Akward Family) Peope Part Dos


I believe that the movie kept me wondering what exactly was going to happen with the family. I think that the ending was absolutely fabulous. It made me open up my mind and wonder what the heck was going on. It also made me use the creative side of my brain to try and peice together the line of events that would fall into order.
Ordinary People has amazing acting in it. I dont think i would have been able to keep myself together in some of the scenes. There was a lot of emotions that were being displayed and a lot that were no that just made me want to shake the character just to get an reaction.
The mother in the story seemed VERY self centered and all she cared about was takin vacations and "getting away". She never really showed any emotions throughout the movie until Calvin (husband) said that he wasn't in love with her any more. He said that it felt as if all her love for anything had been buried with her son Buck. I agree totally with him. At first I was thinking that it was Calvin that Conrad didn't have a relationship with but down the line, it was his mom. They never really spoke to each other and when they did, it was a twisted conversation spoken in circles.
Conrad was dealing with a lot and he blamed every small thing on hisself, and in the end he realized that he was bein a bit harsh on himself. His dad Calvin said that he was so hard on hisself that he never really needed any type of punishments or discipline. I think that the therapy sessions helped him release a lot of his anger. I also think that it was good of Calvin to go to the therapy sessions too. It opened his eyes to a lot of things and made him seem more of a person who was trying to keep his family together.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Brain Damage for Essay Numero Dos




I am not sure what i want to do for essay two. There are so many interesting family values, cultures, and backgrounds we have read about in this unit. I think that i will talk about the critical relationships that often occur in families that happen on a regular basis. I think that I will be able to get a point across that some families are in need of help. I think I will begin by re-reading Bone Black!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Ordinary People Part Uno


This movie has been very interesting to watch thus far. I believe that it has very akward characters like Conrad. The boat accient that occured early on effected him really bad I think. I do not think that he could ever live a normal life afterwards. I believe that he likes to spend time alone mostly because he always seems to stray away from larger crowds. He dosen't seem like he has a close knot relationship with his father. His relationship with his father seems distant as if he doesnt want his fathers input as much as his moms.

The thearpy sessions that Conrad begins to attend are not really helping. I see that within each session he starts to think negatively in his well being. He made a comment about getting a tranquilizer for himself so that it will ease his pain. He also talked about quiting the swim team and how people get on his nerves and then he talks about how he wants to take control of his situation so that others will stop worring about him. I believe that Doctor Burger is not really helping.

I also believe that Conrad like a close knit realtionship which requires a lot of atttention. He mentioned that he missed being in the hospital and that no one hid anything from him. Conrad also was talking to a young lady who had also been seeing a psychiatrist once before. I think that she does need to see someone because she does not seem as if she has it all together. She repeats herself and does not notice it and I am anixous to see how much more akward this movie can get.

Monday, April 7, 2008

I Stand Here Ironing


In reading the intro of this particular story, it was a bit intriguing how it began. The talk of a key or the mother being used as a key threw me into a loop. The story began in circles as if there is a mystery to be found within the reading.

I wonder why this child was the only referred to as “the first and only” of four children to be considered beautiful at birth. Is this child supposed to be extra special? This child is nameless and seems to be the highest priority over all the others. Why were none of the other children mentioned in the beginning? What is the purpose for this child’s life?

I can tell by the words used in the story that it was during an earlier time. “Streetcars” came about before city buses or it was during the time a little before or after trolleys….if I remember correctly. I can tell from reading that she is having some sort of day dream about the relationship her and her daughter began to build. It seems as if her daughter is very dependent on her as if she always wants her to be around. I also noticed that other characters are named in the story and the main ones are not.

This story is a bit confusing. It seems like a mystery. I think that the author was trying to get the reader to think deeper into what was trying to be said because it seems that nothing is told directly. I can also see that there is quite of a hardship between this mother and daughter. I think that most readers can relate to this because there are often cases where the child doesn’t always agree with the parent and the parent only makes moves according to what they think should happen.

I enjoyed reading this story because of the voice that it was in but I think that it was also sad because of the many arguments and the fact that the mother made up in her mind that her and her daughter’s relationship wasn’t going to better.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Essay 1


I am not sure what to do but I guess I will attempt to write about A Good Man is Hard to Find. I think that this is the story that has caught my attention thus far. I think that A Good Man was more to me than just a story. It helped me to make realizations in my o wn life situations. I believe that I can bring out a good essay within this story. It is also based on religion and I think that this is an appropriate time to talk about that during the essay of this story. I think that it's a good time to talk about it because ehile reading the story, you can tell that the old woman's faith was being tested. Her buttons were being pushed little amounts at a time I thought. The killer was about to take her life and she begged and that just told the killer that she had little to no faith within her. I believe within my essay I can find out how much peolpe rely on their religion and how many people use closet religions that others dont see until a life threatining situation arises.

Monday, March 3, 2008

A Good (WO)Man Is Hard to Find???


I had no idea that this story was going to be about a woman and her family. I was thinking more of a basis of a woman trying to find a good man with great standards. I think overall, the story was amazing. It had so much life to it. If it was meant to have no moral, I found one. It's funny how people or authors challenge your ability to think long and hard about how you live your everyday life. this story makes you look back and realize that life's too short to not make the best of it and have an impact on someone else.
As I read on, the killer in the story stood out to me. He seemed to be more than just a killer to me. I think that he was trying to teach this family a lesson. I am not sure what it may be but there was just something about him that stood out. It's very ironic to me how he tried to have no remorse for killing these people but yet he tried not to look into the eyes of them so he wouldn't catch feelings. It was a bit scary at one point. His questions were thought provoking and they made perfect sense. When he said, " there never was a body that gave the undertaker a tip", made me think that there may be a point in life where we should realize that we should never have to beg for life, instead we should take it.

Cathedral

In the beginning of this story, I had no idea I was going to be reading about a blind man and the women who had a relationship with him. I was thinking that I was going to encounter a wonderful work of art on a "cathedral" building. I am still not sue what the whole moral of the story was yet but probably after reading it a second time around will do the trick.
While reading the story, I wondered why the narrator was not very approving of the blind man to join him in his house, and I've noticed that with most of the stories we have read within this class, the couples in them are nameless. It seems as if these couples have to earn their names. They are always referred to as, "the wife" or "the husband". During these times of writing were names irrelevant to the authors?
In Cathedral I thought that the blind man was a bit weird in such a way. Even though he is blind, he seems a little too needy at times. He dosent seem as if he was a person of his own after his wife Beulah passed. After the comment in the story was made about his wife, I was able to identify the background of the people within the story. I think it was very racial to say, "Beulah! was his wife black?" I think that name has nothing to do with what racial background you are. What kind of relationship did the blind man and Beulah have in the first place before they were married?
The lanuage in this story was not of the obvious but I was able to tell that it was from a different time. I think that the characters had voices of their own and I was able to distinguish who was who.