Over and Out

http://kassiehansen.blogspot.com/2012/03/big-two-hearted-river.html

http://kassiehansen.blogspot.com/2012/02/passing-of-grandison.html

http://kassiehansen.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-read-storm-three-times-and-every-time.html

I chose these three because I felt I was confident in what I was reading and I enjoyed reading the stories.  The Storm, Passing of Grandison and Big Two-Hearted River were my strongest blogs because I could either relate to them in some way or I was very interested in the plot of the story.  I could read the stories and take a deeper look at what the writer was saying or what they wanted us to find.  I enjoyed The Storm because she left us with questions and we could make up our own ending or ponder about the story besides putting the book down and that was that.  The other two always kept me wondering what was going to happen and what the hidden meanings were.  I enjoyed them very much.   

I have always enjoyed picking up a book to read because I love a good book.  I’m always looking for the next book to read.  After I finished reading the book I would put it away and not think twice about the story.  I chose to take this class because I wanted to have a better education and understanding of literature.  I did not know what to expect when I walked into this class.  I thought it was just reading stories or books and talking about them like a book club.  This was not the case.  I learned more about irony, foreshadowing, how to analyze a story and to appreciate a book for how the writer would want us to read it and explore what they were saying.  I know I will be challenging me to pick up book that have more to them besides novels that are for pleasurable purposes. 

I would evaluate my performance in this class as hard working and dedication.  I wanted to learn more and not to just get by, so I pushed myself to dive into the homework and the readings we did each week.  My strengths as a writer are the research aspect of writing.  I love to find all the information I need to be successful but my weakness is putting it all together to form a paper that flows.  I’m always struggling with grammar and I would love to strengthen my vocabulary.  I have been a good thinker when it comes to classes such as math but I never have given it much thought when reading a book.  Now I have a new outlook and I will be picking up books with more of a challenge to analyze the story instead of something that does not take thought at all. 

If I were to give myself a grade for the class I would say an A.  I believe I currently sit at a high B.  I’m hoping it will change when I bring my analysis paper back to get regarded.  I could have kept the grade I originally received but I wanted to achieve an A for this class.  I would read the stories week by week to participate in group discussions so I could communicate and find out more.  I know during this class I would check, check and recheck my readings and make sure I did my blogs so I could succeed though out the semester.  

One step at a time

When I walked into class last week I felt like the title of the book, I just wanted to be in a lot somewhere crying because I just read half the book and I felt as if I was lost in the story. I did not comprehend most of the book.  After the class discussion I’m intrigued to see what happens.  This book is almost like a love/hate relationship with me.  I want to know what it all means but I get so lost and I feel like I’m looking up so many words in the story to find more clues. 

Scott left a comment on my blog saying to look for clues and not a big picture.  I had mentioned the title of the book and what it had to do with the story.  He said that I should take a look at the names and what it might have to do with the story.  As I was reading I found one name and that was Koteks.  However; I have yet to see the connection. 

I just want to find out where this is going and in order for me to find out I have to finish the book but I feel lost.  I bet this will be a book I will re-read over the summer so I can listen to the last discussion with class and then when I have digested all the discussion and finished reading it, I will be able to read it over and find out more and have a better understanding.  Maybe one day I will pick up another book written by Thomas Pynchon and I will be able to analyze that story on my own or I will be just as lost.  We will have to see.  

When reading books I always get into the story and want to fast forward like in a movie to see what is going to happen.  Well in books we do not have to press a button, we can just flip to the back and read the last chapter.  I have never done this but I’m always temped to read it to find the answers to my questions. 

I have some idea of what I’m reading but I get lost for a while.  I do have questions such as her relation to Rapunzel.  Does she feel trapped between her husband and her ex-boyfriend?  I would have to say no because her ex-boyfriend is dead but she does have an affair with Metzger. 

I think the story is being told or the way the writer communicates is through letters, shows, plays and stories from the past.  But why, if in fact he (the writer) is telling the story in so many aspects.  Am I on to something or am I in left field.  I think that is why I get lost is because of the change in stories and all the people she is meeting along the way.  

Are there going to be 49 different stories, letters, people she meets or something horrible going to happen to her?  What does the title have to do with the story?  Have we gotten that far and I missed it?  Back to the whole movie and book thing.  When watching a movie I listen to see if they say the title in the movie.  I enjoy that because at that moment it makes sense.  Will this happen here?  

Small Group Discussion

When I signed up for the story I decided on “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”.  At the time I did not know I had read the story before in my English 101 class.  I remembered most of the story but I could not remember how it ended.  I knew someone died but I could not remember if the whole family was killed and how.  When I read it the first time I felt like I was consistently trying to remember what happened next instead of actually reading the story for what it was saying.  I reread the story but this time paying attention to the little things and pondering more because I had questions to follow that were predetermined instead of just showing up to class and talking while having it lead from one thing to the other.  I felt as if we have been preparing for this discussion all class long by learning how to analysis stories and having class discussion with small groups and as a class.  So I have been learning and preparing since the beginning of class.  I also learned how to have a back up with the conversation.  I knew we had to talk so I wanted to make sure I could say things and understand what others were saying so I could add to the discussion.  When we are doing a big class discussion I do not talk much.  When we get into smaller groups I talk but we do not have to do it for an extensive amount of time.

When reading stories or poems from class I would look up a little bit of things but when doing this I dug a little deeper and brought my notes and pages to class so I could either look them up to quote or to help with my though process during the discussion.  I would not do that for a class discussion.

Honestly I felt this discussion I was more prepared for class because I had to be able to answer most if not all the questions because I knew I would have to talk but you never know where the conversation is going to go and what we are going to talk about.  I enjoyed how it was student lead and it allowed us to be able to agree with our classmates or disagree.  We had our own opinions and we had facts.  While having the discussion I heard answers that were very thorough and I learned from them.  This story had so many different things we could have looked up to answer the question so I felt I did more research on this one than all the others except for the analysis paper. 

When we started class Scott mentioned the small group discussion.  Not much was said about what it was and what we were going to do with it until the time came closer and closer.  I believe we have been preparing for this small group discussion since class started but did not know it until the time came and we were unleashed to run the discussion.  I enjoyed it.  In the beginning I was nervous because I felt the pressure of making sure I got my responses in and complete before the time ran out.  I had more that I wanted to say and add tot the conversation but I had used up all my responses.  Scott said there were some of us, myself being one of them that should let others respond.  I understand there needs to be a way to grade the discussion but I wanted to keep going.  There were moments were I felt instead of a conversation we were competing with one another to be the first to comment because that is the one we wanted to comment on the topic.  When I first heard 45 minutes I was wide eyed because I thought that was a long time, but when our time came I wanted to keep going but we had to move on.  Kind of wish we had more time.  

How Ironic

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

I have two favorite things in this story, the irony and the foreshadowing.  In the beginning of the story the grandmother does not want to go to Florida.  She is desperately trying to change her sons mind on the destination because she wants to go to Tennessee.  One of the ways she tries to persuade her son is by saying “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that a loose in it.  I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.” The ironic thing is the grandmother is the one that leads them to The Misfit.  She couldn’t talk her son into going to Tennessee where they would not run into The Misfit but she talks him into going to this house and in the end she leads them to The Misfit. 

In the beginning of the story I feel as if it is more carefree and O’Connor allows the story to have a tone of humor and it’s relaxed.  However; when they get into the car accident I feel the tone turns dark.  Right after the accident June Star is disappointed because she says “But nobody’s killed.”  Be careful for what you wish for because she gets her wish when the whole family is killed. 

Bailey says “we’re in a terrible predicament! Nobody realizes what this is.”  When he said this I felt as if it could go two ways.  In one direction he could be talking to The Misfit saying are you going to help us?  What is going on?  Is he still clueless at this point?  Or is he saying this to his family saying we need to work together to get out of this situation or they are going to kill us?  Still Bailey does nothing but walk away holding his sons hand and yelling back to his mother of all people saying “I’ll be back in a minute, Mamma, wait on me!”  Again is he still clueless?  

The grass is always greener

A song in the front yard

Out of all the poems we had to read this week this poem was the one that I understood and related to the most.  I have learned that all poems have different meanings according to who is writing the poems and who is the audience.  The one reading the poem can read it and think it is one way because of their life and their experiences.  As they go through life they experience more and when they go to read the poem again it might have a completely different meaning. 

When I read a song in the front yard I pictured a little girl in a beautiful white dress with blue flowers and her hair in curls.  She matches the description of the front yard.  She is sick of the roses and most would say a rose is a beautiful flower with an amazing smell.  The front yard is the first place people have to walk when going to your house.  Everyone on the block works a keeping their yard green and clean.  When the weather starts to get warm outside you start to hear the lawn mowers.  It’s like a chain reaction.   The neighbor on the left starts his lawn mower and then the neighbor on the right starts his.  With no time wasted you pull your lawn mower out and do the same because that is what everyone sees and society tells us to keep it looking great.  This is what you do when you have a yard. 

Now your backyard is a place that is covered by a fence.  It is the place that sits behind your house and only the residents go back there.  It is your private area and the only way visitors will go back there is if they are invited to go back there.  In the poem it says the grass is rough and it has weeds.  When I think of weeds I think of dandelions.  When we were younger and did not have money to get our mother flowers we would either get lilacs or dandelions.  Of course we know that lilacs are beautiful and smell amazing, but sometimes we had no other option but to pick dandelions.  They did not smell beautiful and they were a weed that looks like a flower. 

This poem is like the saying; the grass is always greener on the other side.  Yes, it might be greener but you never know what will happen if you choose to go down that road. 

The little girl wants to go to the backyard and down the alley because she is tired of living a sophisticated life.  She wants to play with the poor kids and get dirty.  The little girl wants to bend the rules and get into trouble.  However; society will not allow the little girl to run around with children with that status. 

When I read this I thought about how the little girl in the front yard gets things she wants such as toys, food, clothes and more.  The kids in the backyard or alley have to work hard and do not always get the finer things in life. 

Be careful what you wish for in life.  

                                                                                                                                

Response to Me

My guess is the hidden meaning is not about a boxing match.  I think that his reality has changed now that he has experience this battle royal.  I think he now realizes that has a choice to either give up the fight and not participate in this battle or he can keep up the fight and go on with this new outlook on life.  Life is not always going to be easy or go the way you want but you have a choice when you are faced with reality.  He hates what is going on now and does not know what is going to happy but he has a choice.  I’m not saying this is right or that it’s ok to treat people this way but he is learning from this experience and realizing he needs to play their game for now. 

I never thought literature was so deep.  I would just read the stories and think “That was a good book” and then put it down and didn’t think about it much more.  I have a hard time trying to find the hidden meaning but when we have a discussion we get to dig deeper and find multiple meanings.   By taking a deeper look into the stories we read is helping me experience life and helping me gain wisdom.