Why I am not meant to be a blogger

Sadly, I cannot check the box next to "sufficient in blogging" on any resume or job application in the near future.  First, when creating the blog, I had difficulty manipulating the picture on the screen to make it not so fuzzy.  Strike One. Next, was the infamous log in issues.  Although I could see the blog when I was on the class website, I could not for the life of me or our ever helpful teacher, figure out how or why the website wasn't logging me in.  Strike Two. Then when I actually got to log in to the blog, my login was somehow linked with some random person's page but not with my page. After being on the phone with Blogger (or an oblivious person from Texas), he said that the problem should be "resolved" in a few days, and his best advice was to just "wait it out". Well thanks for nothing, Strike Three.  A week later, I am now able to login and the login leads me to my actual page!!! Success!!!!!! Oh but spoke too soon, now whenever I try to post on the blog, it says there is an error and I have to refresh the page and try again. Great. Strike Four. This may also be another reason, besides the fact that I have a literal block on the time when the blog is due every Thursday, that there were about 7 to 12 days that my blog would reject my existence.  Which leads me to where I started. I am not sufficient in blogging, and I will not be able to check blogging off on any resume or job application. :(

Does snow represent surrender?

When reading Ethan Frome it was clear to me that color was very important within the narrative. Zeena, being drab and boring, wore no colors, just beige, black and brown much like everyone else described in the story. Mattie was the same with the exception of red. A red scarf that symbolized youth and vitality because it was worn nearest the beginning of the novel when everything was still innocent, and a simple red ribbon worn at the end of the novel when it was more of the scarlet letter than of youth. What is also mentioned is the whiteness of the snow and the drab cold winters that last half the year and crush every one's already stifled spirits. As we well know now what red symbolizes, doesn't white symbolize purity and surrender? If we take the color of snow to be surrender, then doesn't the suicide at the end of the novel just mean that both Mattie and Ethan were surrendering to the oppressive notion of not being able to be happy together so they were really just surrendering to the Negativity of the word no, and trying to set themselves free?

It was clear that no matter how many illnesses Zeena would pretend to have, neither she nor that cat were ever going to die before Mattie and Ethan. Just like a cockroach she is going to live on, infesting everyone with her vindictively controlling ways and derive all the sick pleasure over "taking care" of Mattie and Ethan until one of them finally escapes their pitiful and depressing lives in Starkfield.

Isn't this the Law of Life

Although I am not a fan of London's short stories, I found the "the Law of Life" the most interesting to me.  The character of the old moose that fought against the wolves, I think, could arguably be the hero of the story. After witnessing the process and the aftermath of the wolves circling and killing the moose, he was able to understand what the moose was going through. He understood the animalistic instinct to fight back for its life, even though all movements were futile. Like the moose, he was old and been separated from the herd, leaving him by himself in the wilderness, leaving everything up to nature. The moose fighting back was much like his fleeting efforts to save himself from impending doom of teh circling wolves and the feeling of the wet nose on his arm, grabbing the most natural weapon a log on fire for protection. He tires till he realizes that fighting back is pointless, because his outcome is as hopeful as the outcome of the moose, who is now nothing by grey bones against dried blood on the cold hard snow.

Uncle Remus

The short story, “How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp For Mr. Fox” by Uncle Remus , that we read aloud in class identifies the fundamental dynamic of the fox and rabbits relationship. Although these short stories or fables, were supposed to be plantation narratives as the sole purpose of preserving the traditions of the Old South, but as it was mentioned in class, the opposition of the rabbit and the fox provide some social commentary. There is a struggle for dominance in the strictly animalistic sense of the story as well as the struggle for superiority that occurred in the Old South at the time the stories were written.  “You bin runnin’ roun’ here sassin’ atter me a mighty long time, but I speck you done come ter de een’ er de row” This is where the fox is trying to outsmart the rabbit but ends up being caught in reverse phycology and tricked yet again, much like how they want to in social contexts, the black trying to trick or outsmart their less intelligent counterparts.

one upon a time.....

In the short story, Old Woman Magoun, Lily shares a parallelism with Snow White. Snow White is of course the fairy tale of a very innocent girl that is sheltered from the world around her by her step mother, the Evil Queen. She is at the well doing chores when she meets a stranger, a man, that shatters her world. She then begins to venture further and further from the watchful eyes of her step mother. Upon finding out that Snow White was more important and fairer than the evil queen, she had her sentenced to death. Because if she wasnt the best, then no one could be.

In the short story, Lily was raised by her grandmother and because the town was isolated with no bridge to connect to neighboring towns for many years, Lily was raised in pure innocence thus stumping her growth by physically and mentally. When the grandmother prompted the town to build the bridge, she was slightly allowing Lily to venture further away from her watchful eyes and let her gain a bit of evidence. Upon entering town, lily ran into her father that abandoned her mother when Lily was born. This shattered her innocence and world that her grandmother so carefully created and maintained. Upon realizing she couldnt have complete control over Lily's life, she lets her obliviously eat deadly nightshades, thus killing her. During her pre-death hallucinogenic state of mind lily was in, her grandmother allows the audience to know that she also killed her daughter when finding out lily was born because she wasnt able to control her either.

This is my letter to the World

Emily Dikinson's poem 519/441 portrays the feeling of death much like most all of her poems. I do however feel like this poem provides a bit more of an uplifting tone because of the mention of mother nature.  Although Mother Nature is capable of death, she is also capable of life and rebirth. This simple spark of ideas, leads me to consider that this topic is a funeral.  The "Letter to the World" seems to be a eulogy as the last letter to the World before leaving it forever. The reason for Mother Nature in the poem, is to signify the essence of rebirth and being put in the ground, back to the most organic of forms. This would also be a relevent topic for Emily Dikinson because she overlooks on a graveyard and must have witnessed funerals on a daily basis.

I think I have it!

Happy Thursday