Nov. 9

My experience reading this novel was some what similar to the other author. Like him, it was my first comic as well. When i first began to read the novel, it immediately captured my attention and made me want to continue reading regardless of what i had to do in the upcoming moments. The author of the article mentioned how he did not know whether to focus more on the words or the graphics; I also experienced that problem at first. Before making it through the first chapter, I had realized that there was a lot of hidden and underlying references and historical details located in the graphics. So I tried my best to analyze the graphics as i went through and read the words of the characters. As we discussed in class, I believe that to fully understand and even notice all the things present in the novel, you need to have some knowledge of all the things taking place previous to or during the time period this piece was written. In addition to that, you will need to go back and read the book probably two or three more ties at least. There is no doubt though that once I began to read I could not put the book down. This is by far the best piece we have read all semester!

Oct. 26th

In the story, atonement is a fluid concept. You can assume that just about every character is in search of some sort of atonement. The main one in search being Brioney of course; for her wrongful accusation against Robbie. In her search for an atonement of some sort, she never finds any tangible form. So she takes her search to another level by writing her own short story. In this case, there is no better atonement than the one you create for yourself. In her actual life, she could have done more to make right the wrongs she created. But since she did not, her story had to make due. In the story she was able to create her own alternate ending to the lives she plagued. With the setting of the book taking place around WWII, it allowed her to do something to feel like she gave back to the people. By her being a nurse, it was her way of doing a good deed for the rest of her life; while the people who's lives she messed up live in turmoil.

Reflection

I would like to reflect on the theme of nonexistent father figures or male figures in families. We experienced this theme throughout the book, Sula. We talked about how the reason the females in the book were lost and had no strong feelings for men or did not know how to love men was that they had no father or dominant male figure in their life growing up. Sula herself had no male figure growing up and she just had sex with everything walking. She met plenty of men, but did not want to nor did she long any of them. She finally met one she cared for, but her reason for liking him was so awkward. She says in the book that her reason was because he listened; not the gifts he brought nor the sweet things he said to her.
Why is that same theme prevalent in today's society? There are plenty of women out there today that did not have a father figure growing up. Not to say thats why, but they still do not know how to treat, love, and care for a man. The true reason may indeed be deeper than that. Maybe it is because they never been around men and never got to experience what men like and how to love them. Maybe it is because they have malice in their heart and do not really what to care for them or love them. Regardless of the reason, there is definitely a problem there. The only thing we as a society can do to help that is be good parents. Mothers have to stop chasing good men away and love a good one when they come around. Fathers have to be fathers, they have to take care of their responsibilities and love their family.

Who is she?

Everyday I need her. She is all around me and everywhere I look. I try to fight her off but I can't shake the temptation. I thought about her in my dream last night. When i awoke, she was right by my side. Her sensual curves awaited for me to caress her soft skin. As we stare at each other, she begs me to kiss her. I try to retrain myself, as she knows that I desperately seek her affection and love. I give her a tiny peck on the cheek, and tell her that I will come back to her later. She grabs hold of me, whispering sweet nothings in my ear; telling me how I need and my day won't be right without taking all of her right now! I can no longer bear this feeling, this temptation, this addiction! She gives me a long deep kiss that takes my breath away. It takes me a while to gather myself, as I struggle to pull myself together and get dressed to carryout my day, I notice she has left and already I long for her. So instead of going straight to work and keeping my job, I drive around the urban area in search of her; questioning everybody in sight. Finally, I come to a corner and a teenager tells me to go up the block and around the corner and I can find her there; out of trust and gratitude I give him $20. As I arrive at the spot, I beep the horn and she comes to the car; I quickly pull off inconspicuously. Now that the search is over, I take her to work with me to make sure she does not escape again before we return home. I arrive at work only to find that I have been fired for being late too many times. After causing a huge scene, I storm back to the car in a raging frenzy! I look at her and say, "this is all your fault, you always make me late." With nothing else to do, I return home and take her in the house. No breakfast, no television, no searching for a new job in the paper, no nothing. The first thing we do is head straight to the bedroom and get busy. Again the first kiss is a peck. Then she entices me with another deep loving kiss. After that kiss, I roll over and can't stop my mind from scrabbling. In my head are the most random thoughts; I can't keep still. There is this unmistakable feeling running through my body that only she can give me. Before I know it, its night time and an entire day has gone by and I haven't even eaten yet. But even with this, there is no hunger for food, just her. It seems she has gone away again. I must find her! I head back to the corner and the same teenager tells me the same thing, I don't have $20 this time so I ask if he will accept $17. He rejects the offer and I am forced to compensate by offering him my gold ring; worth about $120. So this time when I arrive at the spot, she gets in the car with a few of her friends. I take them all back to my house so we can have a good time. Once in the house, they all come at me at the same time. So after they all give me that deep kiss that gives me that feeling and makes me act the way I do, I go to sleep; only to dream about the great night I just had. As I wake up the next morning, I see that one of the girls is still here. I immediately roll over and we gaze at each other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu1LpRFOMxI

blog due Sept. 28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBjDu21c0cA&feature=related

The nae of this song is Best of Me (Remix) by Mya featuring Jay-Z. I choose this song in reference to Yolanda and Rudy of The Rudy Elmenhurst Story.

This message of this song is almost identical to Yolanda and Rudy! In the song, Mya's lyrics talk about wanting to be with the guy in every way, including sexually. She just does not want the guy to get the "best of her." In the chorus she says, "even though i wanna see, how you put that thing on me, I can't, let you, get the best of me." That line alone describes how Yolanda felt. Yolanda wanted to have sex with Rudy but she choose not to. Jay-Z's most notorized line in this song is, "that's high school, making me chase you around for months, have an affair, act like an adult for once." This line is very ironic; for the simple fact that Yolanda is acting in college, the way she did in high school. She still chooses not to let the relationship progress in a sexual manner. Considering college is suppossed to be the time when you become an adult. Rudy is expecting her to do as her peers and what the song says, have an affair; act like an adult. Jay-Z has also has a line that says, "get it together, or forget it forever." That line describes how rudy felt when he realized that Yolanda was not going to have sex with him. Since she did not "get it together," he said forget it and left her alone.

Week of Sept 7th

The second clip does a better job at bringing Blache to life off the page. In the second clip, the actress is more dramatic and that is a strong characteristic of Blanche in the story. The actress in the second clip reenacted the scene of Blache calling the operator greatly!
The actress in the second clip also does a better job at playing the role Tennessee describes in his famous quote. She is very much on the verge of hysteria and afraid of life. This quality was displayed when she had her talk and made the phone call. She seemed to be desperate to get in contact with her friend so he could help her out of her current situation. It was almost as if she were dependent upon him at the time to rescue her and give her a better life; or atleast a new surrounding.

Week of August 29

After recalling all the characters in the previous works we have discussed in class, the one that exemplifies best the differences between Modernism and Postmodernism is Rudy. The main difference between the two themes is that the idea of Modernism contains the belief that there is an absolute truth to everything; and that through rationalism and logic everything can be understood. While in Postmodernism, there is no absolute truth, things are left up to interpretation as a result of rationalism and logic. As in relation to the story, Yolanda interprets Rudy to be a person that has only one thing on his mind, sex! In the story she mentions, "it was physically painful for guys not to have sex." So after thinking about him and rationalizing, she concludes that he only wants to have sex with her. While if she had only looked at if from a different point of view and maybe analyzed his culture and the content of his past, she might have came to a different conclusion. That his culture made him do the things he did and say the things he said. In class we discussed how it was the cultural differences that posed the biggest problems between Yolanda and Rudy. The fact that he even said, "I thought you'd be hot-blooded, being Spanish and all, and that under all the Catholic bullshit, you'd be really free," lets you know they come from different backgrounds. In class we related to Rudy through a Postmodernism viewpoint. This was evident simply because of the fact that there were different opinions in the class of what type of person he was and why he was like that.