PAT'S BLOG

Things Fall Apart

2005-05-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

In “Things Fall Apart” Okonkwo is a wealthy, powerful soldier from the Umuofia clan from southern Nigeria. He is a proud man, who always worked hard to achieve everything that he has in life, and he has a lot: a wealthy life, plentiful harvests, a large family which he is able to support, and a large quantity of land. On top of all of this, he is the most powerful and skilled worrier from his clan. Okonkwo has many children, but there are really only two which the story centers on, his son Nwoye, and is adopted son Ikemefuna. One day, after many years of living together, Okonkwo’s friend and respected village elder Ogbuefi Exeudu meets with Okonkwo to tell him that the Oracle has decided that Ikemefuna must die for the betterment of the clan. Okonkwo allows so because he is a proud man and does not want to show any weakness for his children.
After Ikemefuna dies, Okonkwo goes into a depression, and only comes out of it when he talks with his friend Ogbuefi again. Unfortunately, Ogbuefi shortly after dies. At his funeral, Nwoye’s gun for a salute blows up and kills a member of Egbuefi’s family, thus causing Okonkwo and his family to be exiled for seven years. While in exile in his mother’s land of Mbanta, Okonkwo again begins to live a prosperous life due to his hard work and determination. One day missionaries show up in Mbanta and try and convert the clan to a different religion. After the clans leaders get captured and tutored, Okonkwo kills the leader of the missionaries, only to soon find that his clan is not ready for the appending war the Okonkwo has just caused. Okonkwo kills himself out of shame, hoping to avoid the war for his clan.
I enjoyed this story because it centers on a man who is one of my favorite characters from any of the stories we have read. I think that being a wealthy soldier is more interesting and entertaining that a black man who thinks himself invisible. Okonkwo always tries to work hard and keep himself from being idle because he believes that this is the best and most prosperous way to life your life. On top of that Okonkwo never shows any weakness or emotions, even towards his own wives and children. I believe that this is the reason for all of Okonkwo’s misfortunes in the long run. His father lived his life full of emotion, despite never being able to feed his family. Okonkwo could fend for his family, although he never showed them any love or support, despite times in which he did actually feel a strong bond to them. Okonkwo needed to find a median between the two, work hard when it needed to be done, but also show love, support and emotions towards his family and friends. I believe that if he did this, all of the tragedies of his life may have been avoided.

Invisible Man

2005-04-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

Invisible Man is a story of a black man in the early 1900’s who faces the issue of racism throughout his entire life. As a young man, the narrator it told by his grandfather to stop living a lie and stop being a traitor. This is very alarming because he had never heard his grandfather talk like that. As he grows he learns about life and the differences in different kinds of people. As a young man he believed that all black men had a common goal in social equality, until he met Dr. Bledsoe. Dr. Bledsoe proved him wrong as he revealed a hidden “mask”. This mask was to disguise his real objectives of not allowing anyone to take his position of power, or even to jeopardize his power. As the story goes on, the narrator learns about the meaning of living your life as an invisible man. To be invisible is to live your life suppressing your emotions and how suppressing how you really feel. It is also to hide who you really are from the rest of the world and become who everyone else wants you to be. As the story continues, the narrator experiences a sort of rebirth, and becomes who he always wanted to be. He expresses how he feels; he becomes powerful, and important. He joins the Brotherhood, which is nothing more than a communist group disguised as a group for the betterment of all mankind. As he grows in the Brotherhood, he is accused of trying to gain individual profit from the Brotherhood. Yet again the narrator must learn that people are devious and hide their real intentions from others by wearing a “mask”. The narrator knows that he has become an invisible man, and even though many people wear masks to hide who they are, he himself seems to wear no mask, but remains invisible.

Draft 47: Printed Matter

2005-04-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

For Draft 47: Printed Matter, my group did the first stanza. Although the poem appears to be nothing but random words and phrases thrown together, there is a deeper hidden meaning to the words. Words that seem to have no connection at first seem to have a distant relation when you look more closely. "Erosion wind form", "leached gemstones", and "cannoned rock fall", words that seem to have no relation show a connection to a change in geology. Another group of words that show a connection to nature is "leaf", "stock wood", and "petals". The point is all the random words that appeared to have no connection; all did have a connection to a great cause, such as pollution, geology, nature, and astronomy. And all these still have a bigger connection to something even more great. Everything in this poem has a connection to nature, and everything in nature. Even though the true meaning of something is not always apparent, the meaning is always there, it’s just a matter of finding it.

Antigone

2005-04-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Antigone is a story of a woman who does what she believes is right, yet is punished for her beliefs. She is punished by a greedy king who does anything he wants because he believes he is above the law. Eventually the king gets what is coming to him when the truth gets out and the elders find out what really happened. An event in real life that has recently occured that bares some resemblence to the story of Antigone is the Scott Peterson cause. Scott Peterson was the man who recently killed his pregnant wife and unborn child. He believed that what he did was right, and that he was justified for some reason to do so. Scott Peterson is a screwed up man who thought he was above the law, much like the king from Antigone. In the end, Scott Peterson pays for what he did, also like the king. When the police, who resemble the elders from Antigone, discover the terrible crime he has commited, they send him to jail and sentence him to death, showing the final resemblence to the king from Antigone.

Ideology in The House Of The Spirits

2005-03-30T08:58:00.000-08:00

There are many different forms of ideology in The House Of The Spirits. The most clear and important use of ideology though is in this conversation between Blanca and Pedro Tercero. " "When I grow up, i'm going to marry you and we're going to live here in Tres Marias," she whispered. Pedro stared at her with his sad old man's look and shook his head. He was still much more of a child than she, but he already knoew his place in the world." This shows to the reader that Blanca has a sense of false reality to the real world around her. Blanca and Pedro Tercero come from two different social classes, and marriage between these two different social classes at this time was somewhat unheard of. Unfortunately for Blanca, she fails to see this. I think that sometimes, when someone comes from an upper class, they can sometimes fail to see the world as it really exists. Whether it is from lack of experience seeing a lower social class, or maybe its just because she is too young to completely understand the world she lives in. Sometimes this happens in real life too. Not so much anymore, but in years past it was uncommon to see a marriage between a higher class man and a lower class woman, or vise versa. Also, in other cultures around the world it is very uncommon to see an inter-class marriage. In 1920's Tres Marias, this kind of marriage does not exist. Pedro understands this, but Blanca fails to see the real truth.

The Legent of Cortez

2005-03-01T15:33:00.000-08:00

"The Legend of Gregorio Cortez" is a sotry about a man named Gregorio Cortez who lives near the Mexican/American border in the early 1900's. After Gregorio Cortez's brother was unjustly killed by a sheriff, he takes matters into his own hands and kills the sheriff himself. Following these vents Cortez was followed by 300 American's for his arrect, but he could not be taken. FInally Cortez turned himself in, but only on his own terms. In the Legeng, Gregorio Cortez was described as a real man's man. "Ah, but what a man! All hear and all testicles, that is to say, all kindness and all courage." This is a direct quote from the story that perfectly describes the kind of man that Gregorio Cortez was. Being this kind of man, you can imagine the kind of shock that ran through the country-side when Cortez killed the sheriff. "The Legend of Gregorio Cortez" was such a populartale in Mexico that throughout the years different versions of the story have been created. These versions of the legend are all slightly different, but all have the same plot and features to the story. All these different versions of the story help make "The Legend of Gregorio Cortez" unforgetable throughout time.

Blood Wedding

2005-03-01T15:22:00.000-08:00

"Blood Wedding" is a play that takes place during the time of a wedding. The groom, called Bridegroom, is the sole remaining family member other than his mother. His father and brother were both killed through the use of violence, specifically knives. This has caused his mother to grow fearful of any violence, and has also made her very protective of son. This conflict between Bridegroom and his mother's fear eventually comes out during the story. The bride, who is simply called the wife, is the other member in the marriage. There is another very important character in the play named Leanardo. Leanardo and Bridegroom are bitter enemies and truely hate each other. But this is not the end of the controvery between the two. It turned out there was a past between the wife and Leanardo, and they are still secretely in love with one another. Even while Bridegroom and his wife are together, the wife still sneaks away to be with Leanardo. Eventually the wedding happens, and thats when things turn bad. After learning of his wife's betrayal, Bridegroom grabs a knife and chases after Leanardo into the forest for a final battle. This act devistates his mother as she assumes that this act will be the death of her son. As the battle between Leanardo and Bridegroom goes on, it becomes clear that this play would turn out to be the tragedy that it was supposed to be. After both Leanardo and Bridegroom have killed each other, the tragedy of the Blood Wedding is known by all, and the devistation of the wife's betrayal will be fealt by the living loved one's of both men.

The Awakening

2005-02-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

In "The Awakening", Kate Chopin feels as if she is somehow being held down in her life. Even though she loves her husband and children, Kate shows numerous examples of how much happier she could be in her life. An example of this is when Kate Chopin goes out with Robert, it kind of opens up her eyes to the world that she always wanted to have, and not the life she thinks that she was forced into. Chopin loves her husband, but she feels forced into her marriage because it was something she was supposed to do: she was supposed to be married, she was supposed to have children, she was supposed to be the woman that she was. But these are not things that she truely wants.

I think that the end of the story was a little dissappointing because of how good the story was up to that point, but the ending does make sense. She came so close to almost having what she deeply wanted with Robert, only to have it striped away as fast as it got there. Having to live through this seemed to be too much for her, because as she ended the story, she seems to be dropping hints that this was the last swim of her life.

Yellow Wallpaper

2005-01-25T18:02:00.000-08:00

Yellow Wallpaper is about a woman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who is suffering from some kind of illness throughout the story. Although it is not known for sure what is wrong with her, depression and seperation anxiety is believed to be the cause of her illness. I believe that there are two very imporant issue that Charlotte Gilman is trying to display to the reading audience: the importance of using your mind, and the possible ignorance of the medical profession at the time.

At the time of the illness, Charlotte Gilman saw a doctor who told her to baraly use her mind or intelligence at all. After practicing what the doctor told her for a while, she began to get worse, and even began to believe that her own husband was out to get her. For a while things were really bad for her, until she began to think and use her mind again. As she began to think more clearly and on her own again, her condition began to improve, and slowly she recovered from her illness. I believe that the point that Charlotte Perkins Gilman was trying to drive home was the importance of your own mind. Your mind is the most precious and valuable tool that anyone can posses, and taking it for granted or not using your mind as you should is a series problem that can easily be fixed.

Frederick Douglas

2005-01-25T17:54:00.000-08:00

In the book "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave", Frederick Douglas writes of several very important issues that faced the nation at that time. Slavery, at this time, was heavy throughout the United States, and especially in the south. I believe that Frederick Douglas tried to show through his book the evils of slavery. Even though Frederick Douglas was born into slavery, that did not stop him from becoming a free, and educated, man.

The fact that Frederick Douglas was an educated and literate black man brings me to another imporant issue in his book. Frederick Douglas tries to convey throughout his book the importance of education and literacy. Being well educated is something that most American's take for granted. We were brought up into a world full of education and technology; this was not the case in the 1800's. Frederick Douglas was not born the well educated man that he eventually became, he had to learn and grow into it. Through his writings, we can tell that Frederick Douglas believed in the importance of education and literacy, because without them, the opportunity to grow and achieve at life would simply not be there.