A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

This story at first glance is very confusing. After reading what Professor Serrano put on her blog it makes  a little more sense but it is still not just real clear. I don't think that the couple treated the angel very good considering he was an angel. I know that the reason he was there in the first place was to take the couple's son but the son got better so they should've taken care the angel. Also because of the angel the couple got to have a better life. They made money on people looking at him like a freak show. And then they resented him wanting him to go away. I understand the moral that people are willing to try and make money on anything but I just don't think you should do that to an angel.

A number of years after "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" was published, a movie was made for Spanish television based on the story with the screen play written by the story's author.  The movie begins with a biblical quote from Hebrews 13:2:  "Be careful when you entertain strangers as you may be entertaining angels unawawares."  The movie ends with a shot of the old man taking off his wings.  Does knowing this context contribute to or possibly change your interpretation of his written text?


This does contribute to my interpretation because the reason that the people might have treated him like a parish is he might not have actually been an angel. But I still think that even as a regular human being he should have been treated better. Not put into a old chicken coop with that was dirty.

The Kite Runner

• Compare/contrast Amir and Hassan. What is Amir’s problem? What are Hassan’s strengths? Are they friends?
• Amir is the only son of a wealthy widowed man. Amir thinks his father doesn't love him because his mother died while she was giving birth to him. Amir lives a privileged life and has almost everything he could want except, he feels, his father's love and approval. 
• Hassan is the son of a servant that has been with Amir's father for over forty years.  He is usually well liked and a hard worker. A group of boys in the movie are racist against him because he is a different ethnicity than Amir who he is always with. 
• Amir's problem is that he is more interested in making up stories than fighting his own battles. He doesn't have the strength to do what is right even when he knows what is happening is wrong.  Amir and Hassan are always together and Hassan is the more forceful and outgoing of the two. Hassan's strength is that he is loyal to a fault. He would do anything for Amir. I think that they are friends even though Hassan has grown up as a servant to Amir's family. They are almost like brothers but Amir just isn't a strong enough person to help Hassan when he is in trouble and because of that their friendship unravels for a while. Their relationship changes but not for the better. 

• One of the issues of the story is the relationship of fathers and sons. Discuss one event that illustrates something about father/son relationships.
• I feel like the event that really illustrates a component of father/son relationships is how when Amir wins the kite cutting championship. Even though Amir's father always loves him, it took Amir winning the event for his father to express his feelings. I have even seen this with my own daddy and I am a girl. Sometimes I  feel like fathers just don't know how to express feelings without a reason. 

The Namesake

We read Nikolai Gogol’s story “The Overcoat” earlier in the course, and it figures importantly in Lahiri’s The Namesake. In what ways is it related toThe Namesake? In what ways is a name like an overcoat?
           
   "The Overcoat" is related to The Namesake because it is basically the whole reason for the story. If Nikolai Gogol had never written "The Overcoat" then The Namesake might have still be able to come about but it wouldn't be the same story at all. If the character Gogol's father had not been reading "The Overcoat" on the train that night in India, he would not have survived the train crash or felt like he owed his life to the book. Also whenever the letter containg the name for the new baby didn't come Ashoke would not have thought of the name Gogol to remind him of everything that has and will be good in his life. To go along with that if his father hadn't named him Gogol, the main character wouldn't have spent almost the whole book rebelling against his name and culture. Because of the fact that Gogol didn't  like his name and on top of that it wasn't even an Indian name, he felt disconnected with his culture and I felt that the whole book he was trying to find himself. 
   An overcoat is like a name because just like people judge you by what you wear they also judge you by your name. If you hear that a guy your meeting for a blind date is named Winston or Jim Bob your going to have some preconceived notions, even if they aren't true.  Also just like Akakiy felt lost without his overcoat if you person gets amnesia and forgets their name it feels like they have lost a part of their self. 

Things Fall Apart

  Personally I really did not like this text. For some reason I just couldn't get into it and I didn't feel invested in the characters. However, while studying this in class I really enjoyed the presentations that we heard over the book. My favorite was the group that talked about this story in conjunction with The Edge of Darkness. I found that lesson incredibly interesting because I really had no idea that any of that had happened. It was very eye-opening to realize what so called "civilized" nations did to those the deemed "savage" or "uncivilized". It makes me feel a little bit ashamed because while I know that it wasn't the same, American's did similar things to the Native Americans. My next favorite presentation was that of the group that talked about the language. I thought that the way they presented their project helped me understand the book a little better. In answer to the question of how I feel about Okonkwo, I feel that while he could be a bit cruel he was a bit misunderstood and deep down good hearted. He followed his favorite daughter to the oracles cave even thought it was forbidden, which I think shows that he was actually a good person.

Che Guevera- Motorcycle Diaries

Do you think Guevera could've made a greater impact on the world by going home and finishing his medical studies and serving as a doctor, or by following the political path of a revolutionary?

     I do not think that Guevera could have a made a greater impact on the world by going home and going back to med school. If you really think about it when you are a doctor you usually have to make a choice about where you are going to work. You either work with limited supplies helping poverty stricken people or work with almost everything that you could need and help only people that can afford to pay for the service. Even if Guevera would have gone into something like research into leprosy, most likely it would only have affected the less poverty stricken instead of people like those he met on his adventure. While I know that the United States had a part in taking him down, Guevera was a symbol of a better life to many people in South America. 

World War Two

We read several different stories this week about World War Two. The first "The Shawl" was very touching because it was all about how a shawl nourished a child for months when it had little or no food. I think the shawl was a symbol of the mother's love and how she loved her child so much that the child could live from that. In turn the child loves the shawl back and when she is gone, it is the mother's turn to be nourished by it. The shawl is all that she has left and its like the baby's love is still with her mother. The second story we read was Ladies and Gentleman to the Gas Chamber and it was even more insightful and heart wrenching. It makes you realize what the prisoners who did survive the camps had to do to get by. They had to become almost as inhuman as the guards to be able to get through the day. The main character has tries to physically purge himself from the guilt of this by throwing up and hiding under the train. This is significant because he feels like that is better than getting the stuff he needs for survival. The main character finds the way that the prisoners who are being sent to death appalling. But when he brooches the subject with his friend the friend who has already become tolerant of what is happening around him tells him that it is no big deal and he should basically take what he can get. All in all this gives us realistic look into some parts of life in a concentration camp.

"The Fly"

In "The Fly" the Boss is a bit of a weird character. He isn't senile like Old Woodifield but he is peculiar  in that he enjoy's killing a fly. While I know that the killing of the fly is symbolic to how he feels about his son's death, it is still cruel to torture the thing like that. Just kill it! However, in class we talked about how the fly symbolizes the moral of  Germany after World War One, just continually beat down until it can never recover. The people, especially the soldiers who fought in the trenches have never seen such gruesome things. Also the war was cause by something that the common citizens probably didn't understand so they might not really have understood what they were fighting for. The Boss symbolizes the government of Germany and how they control the people. They keep pushing and pushing until finally something or someone breaks. In the story the things that broke were the fly and the Boss's son. The story also talks about the suffering that the fly went through and this relates to the suffering of Europe throughout the war and afterwards when they were trying to get back on there feet. So while I still think that the Boss is a bit strange, he has his reasons and they have deeper meanings.

"The Dead"

Consider the names of the characters, specifically Gabriel and Michael--what is their origin/meaning generally and then consider their use in the text.


   The names of Gabriel and Michael are significant in the story because their roles parallel the roles of the biblical Gabriel and Michael. They do this because in "The Dead" Gabriel is second in Greta's heart to Michael. Her love for him survives death and time, while Gabriel just sits in the background. In the bible Michael is the archangel and is second only to God while Gabriel is behind both Michael and God. Michael is the angel who threw the devil out of heaven and Gabriel told of the birth of Jesus Christ. This is significant in our story because Gabriel is a professor and therefore delivers learning to all his students. The Gabriel of the bible also delivers  messages to Mary and Joseph about the coming of their baby. These similarities make the reader draw conclusions that Joyce knew what he was doing when he wrote this story. He wanted you to think about how these names give meaning to the story that otherwise would not be there. 

The Metamorphosis

According to Dictionary.com - a metamorphosis is, "a profoundchange in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an organism--a complete change of form, structure, or substance--a form resulting from any such change."  In considering this definition, what was Gregor's life like before and after his metamorphosis--do you believe his change was literal or metaphoric and why?


  Before Gregor's metamorphosis his life was not his own. He lived and did everything for his family. They took the fact that he basically put his life on hold to pay off his father's debt and provide for the family in a way in which they had become accustomed to. We know that Gregor really hated his job and was going to quit as soon as he had paid the director back. He really loved his sister and wanted to send her to the conservatory so she could learn more about the violin. However, even she did not really appreciate what he was doing for the family. 
  After Gregor's metamorphosis he kinda lived for himself and his basic needs. He was the one who was being taken care of now and he pretty much just ate, slept, ran around the room, and listen to his family's conversations. His sister was now the person taking care of him but even she eventually got tired of that. Because of Gregor's change it made his family realize how  much he actually did for them. In turn they had to start relying on themselves and get up and start doing something. Even his mother who was a bit sickly, contributed to the family by sewing lingerie. The sister, Greta, really stepped up and became a woman throughout the story and she kinda took over Gregor's place in the family. 
    I think that in the story the change was real, but that the author wrote it to make you think of other things. Like maybe when a person gets sick and dies or a tragedy happens. I think the author really wanted you to think that Gregor actually changed into a cockroach but everybody knows that can never actually happen. Therefore, I think it is metaphoric to how some people's family dynamic is and how we in society take other people for granted. But when the tables turn we don't always care for them in the same way.