Where have been? Where are you going?

In Sharold Oates' story, "Where have you been, where are you going?," Connie is the story’s main character in which the third person intimately looks into her thoughts and feelings.

The house, as Connie’s identity, is kind of like both her child hood and her secret identity. She puts on make up and nice clothes and accentuate her older features to pretend she is something she is not. When she goes home, she comes back to slip off her costume and retain this childlike identity for her family and herself. Essentially she is still 16, so when Arnold Friend comes a knocking, her first instinct is stranger-danger cause he is meeting her at her secret identity.

I think Arnold probably takes her somewhere remote, probably where he can have his way with her. Or maybe even where he can show her off. Shortly after she got in his car, she was probably abused.

The setting functions as a reflection of the characters and their actions. A barren, country setting not far from the city reflects how her family is close and yet far from making real connections, all path blocked by selfishness or sarcasm. It also reflects the differences in Connie and her alter ego, the woman she wants to be seen as and the little girl she still very much is. The complications of her night ego slip into the day world of her child identity when Arnold comes knocking.

Ghana Food

Nothing is better than taking a long shower and have someone cook you a hot meal.

After a fruitless search today, I was aching coming home to the hostel. The moment Ientered the stairwell, I found it filled with this amazing smell, like homecooking. I discovered that visitors from Africa were cooking! I told them it smelled so good. For some reason, it remind me of mom who just recently visited this weekend before heading back to Houston, Tx.

I took a long shower after all the walking and sweating today. When I walked in, they were all still gathered around, and they invited me to eat with them. Someone served me a plate of some really hot rice and chicken, and it was the healthest, spicest, most delicious meal all day.

Oh god, was it spicy. But it was delicious and from Ghana, and it tasted like love, man.

Voodoo, whether you think of it as a religion or not, has some science to it. The energy you put into something, creates it. When you cook something and you put love into it, it tastes lke the love and energy it was made with and can sometimes make you stronger and live longer. It also tastes better.

Anyway, so it tasted like the best meal i'd had since saturday morning with mom. I asked a man of the group why and where they were from. They were from ghana and came to Memphis because they were muscians and were touring. I was hoping they'd stay til thursday, to play at open mic night at Java Cabana. I would try to see them then.

Afterwords, I tried to clean my plate, but they wouldn't let me! He said because the women cooked, the men would clean. I protested, because I certainly didn't cook, but they wouldn't hear it. So I thanked both the men and the women of the group of Africans from Ghana and went to here to work on homework and stuff.

One of the best things about Pilgrim House Hostel is that people from all over the world are generally nice, and they want to feed you whether you're hungry or not. I especially loved that about this place, and missed it when i left, because it has introduced me to so much good food and good people.

Judith Slaying Holofernes

This is a painting done by one of the earliest recognized female painter known as Artemisia Gentileschi. The painting is a tribute to the folklore, or perhaps, biblical story behind her home town. It is about how a young woman saved the town from an evil general by seducing him with the promise of a good time and alcohol. After he drank all the alcohol, she chopped off his head with a sword, decapitating the army that held her town captive. The story is somewhat reflective of Gentileschi herself, who was raped by her own apprentice. Her father sued the young man and won. She started the painting before the trial and finished when the trial was over. There is some of herself in the painting and some of the story.

I though some explaining was due.

Halloween is almost religious and Tom will find me in the star trek movie

I hate the rain. Well I don't hate the rain, but certainly is an uninvited guest who comes into my house, eats all my junkfood, then leaves all her trash, and me in a terrible mood to clean up. I know she's just cleansing and making everything greener, but after three days of no sun, I begin to dawdle away from real tasks.

Alyssa Blair, my beloved red head friend, is away in Italy when I really want to talk to her. Facebook is my stalker use to find out how she's doing. Apparently, she feels awfully different, but she is enjoying the privacy in some ways. I should probably tell her she's gonna feel pretty different around anyone but us. I miss our late night turkey bacon.

Shannon and I have apparently reached a new level of nerd. She is making plans for star trek costumes. I said "yeah, okay, i can see Tom just walking into the staff room, and I'm dressed in a star fleet uniform watching star trek, oh is he going to freak out." Tom is my old friend and ex-manager. I used to work at Pilgrim House Hostel as an R.A. I moved out about half a year ago, and now I'm back as a just a resident for the time being. I often go to the staffroom to do all my homework and me-time.

Pilgrim House Hostel, if you're interested >>> http://www.pilgrimhouse.org/Pilgrim_House/Home.html

Again she's planning, but who really knows if we'll do this. Meanwhile, I'm stuck on my crazy art history halloween costume planning. Last year I was Frida Kahlo and I was thrilled to see how many people knew who I was. This year it's Judith Slaying Holofernes. The picture is up there.
Basically, I'm going to be going around campus with a big yellow dress holding a man's maniquin head and a sword. Thinking about roping a friend into following me around, dressed as maid with a basket. But that's probably oh wait, Dana would do it. YES.

I'm going to count how many people get it this year. This is why Halloween is almost a religious holiday to me.

Two poems and a Story

Growing and Growing

"A&P" by John Updike has vivid ingrediants. It uses personal simple vocabulary in metaphorical ways. Sammy paints a perfect vision of the supermarket pinball machine with the people weaving in and out of the aisles. He uses strange graphic descriptions of freckles and lips all bunched up together. These descriptions are painfully accurate, like watching something under a magnifying glass.

The process is first person, absolutely commited to Sammy, who is growing from childhood to adulthood. Usin the ingrediants in story formatt along with an introductory setting, a climatic paragraph and a conclusive ending.

This story's product is a story, of course, and a meaning that it doesn't matter what people think, only what Sammy thinks of himself. If Sammy thinks he's a hero, he's a hero. It doesn't matter what the small town he live in thinks or what the girls didn't notice, it's that Sammy thinks he did right.

"Rites of Passage," written by Sharon Olds, is comprised of different ingrediants, processed in a different way, and with a different end product. The ingrediants are comprised of words like "jostling, jockeying," "Generals," "turret," and a repetition of "men" when referring to characters that are actually young children. The words are agressive at first with phrases like "eye each other, seeing themselves small," then change to gentle descriptions like "freckles like specks of nutmeg" implying something else entirely. The author juxtaposes a happy event with the serious and grave manner of make-believe war in children's minds.

Processing this poem is first person as well, through the eyes of the mother. The conflict is certainly man against an idea, that men will fall in the line of other men, like sheep, and already the main boy in the story proves he will think differently. Part of the process is also conversation in italics, so that we may know why he will be different. The contrast between men and boys is how the poem ferments into being both humorous and interesting.

The Product of the poem is the meaning and the poem itself. It is the message from the writer to the reader that she hopes her child will be different and think differently whether it is pretending at a young age or making real decisions as an adult.

"The One Girl at the Boy's Party", also created by Sharon Olds, is a poem about girls but contains similiar elements, however the words she uses that are eye-grabbing is composed of mathematical terms. Unlike most poets who use superfluous words like chandierlers or unnecessary vases, she use them like gears and tools that keep the meaning and the textured imagery flowing. Words like "smooth," "sleek," "indivisible," pencil lead," "sealed," and "plunge." Phrases like "molecules of chlorine" and "to the power of thousand" only increase the drama and awe the poem entails.

The poem is composed of woman versus image. We as readers are expected to be well aware of the myth that women aren't good at math, and that the poem is used to defy that mythical information. Using first person of perhaps a mother or father, it depicts the scene of the only girl at an all boy's party who is joining in with swimming. At first, the main girl character has seemed to enter the scene as a child, but by the end of it, she has become something powerful to admire. This theme from child to adult is common place.

The end product is a poem and a meaning that when women become older, the point of views of the children will change along with age, but will not change who they are. The energy and smarts grow with a person and will defy expectations.

A common theme between all three of these literary examples is the change from child to adult, from the helpless position and age to the decisive and powerful age whether through the loss of a job, the change a subject, or entering a new area of expertise.

John Updike + two poems

The John Updike interview over the A&P story was interesting. He drew some of the story from personal experience and some from his own observations. He connected villians from his life when his mother was a salsewoman to villians in the story. He also refers to people in the market aisles as balls in a pinball machine was vivid imagery and a humourous idea. Mr. Updike believes or refers to Sammy as a hero, which is contrary to what I and most of my Literary Heritage Class believe. He states he is a hero, even if he is looking for reocgnition or praise.

I think what Mr. Updike means is that even though Sammy is looking for praise or recognition, it doesn't make him any less of a hero. He isn't a modest hero or the relunctant hero, but he is a hero nonetheless. I can somewhat agree with that statement since there are some people we regard as heroes although they have many undesirable qualities such as Ulysses S. Grant and his drinking problem, Barrack Obama and his smoking habit, or John McCain and his anger issues.

_+_+_+_

Poems.

Rites of Passage.
Interesting! I thought it was adorable how she referred to the boys as "short men." I can relate to that since i come from two families, one large hispanic family and one large white texan family. On my father's side, the white Texan family, there is a strong sense of "manliness" even at a young age. My cousin has three children, and since the day they're born, they learn to act like stoic, serious men, mostly cause the grown men in the family act like they've walked out of an old western.

The One Girl at the Boy's Party
Really fun to read. I like mathematical vocabulary even though I neither speak it or understand it. I very much enjoyed reading this poem because at times I could relate to it(as in the title). However, i did not understand that sense of awe she was implying that the boys felt for the only girl. Wouldn't most children that age not notice? I haven't spent a lot of time with children in a while and I couldn't see the perspective. The imagery and the metaphors were like a painting.

Oh Procrastination should be an art form.

Sometimes I'll sit down with every intention to joyfully complete my homework only to realise that I'd much rather be doing something else.

I went to Knoxville this weekend. It was awesome. Hilarious. Terribly fun and dramatic. I went with my friend, Shannon Leonard, who i've known since Middle School. It was good to go with only one person and not have to deal with the urine systems of two other people in the car. I think me and my brother have synchronized are urine systems since we went to Houston together to pick up mom.

Okay, besides that, we went to an awesome used cd/book/movie stoor known as McKay's.

http://www.mckaybooks.com/

this place had everything. It had every star trek novel that Shannon had been looking for(well one wasn't there). I bought season one of star trek and season one of True Blood, because everyone kept badgering me about seeing it and it was only $30.00. We wanted to spend hours there, but we had to cut our time short. Eliot, my little brother who was the whole reason we came to Knoxville, needed to be somewhere at a certain time, and we had made plans to feed him before that engagement.

Sushi was delicious. A cheap place called Tomo is where we went. They had soup, salad, and two kinds of delicious rolls for $10.00. I paid for Eliot's meal since I knew he wasn't working and needed the cash. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until we went to the imax that night I really should have paid for the movie ticket which was $15.00 instead. >:

I know, i'm an idiot, but at least i did some good in his world, right? Sushi is good.

The ride home was hard. I was so tired, but everytime I wanted to sleep, I kept thinking "only one more hour!" Shannon kept me up with classics like Rush and Journey and then some silly disney songs gone punk. Did I mention that there's a reason we've been friends for this long? It's because of awesome stuff like that. :D

I took the longest shower in the history of showers when i got back and proceded to write uselessness until about 3 am in which i passed out and missed my first class the next day.

Rejuvination comes with a price. What I would give for a phoenix down.

Because I think I'm supposed to put something here?

I write poetry sometimes when i can't express something coherently.

-Nology
by me.

Your name is void of meaning
Its place is forgotten in my parkinglot of a heart
I'll eat the flesh of my peachy summer
I'll lick the insides of my lips for the leftover tastes of my life
While I careen out of chaos into order
Plaid shirts
Toiling sleeves
Paint and sweat
I am wanted
See my smile
Laughter escapes like bubbles
Underwater
Catch me if you can.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman is a heroine. For one thing, the woman has never backed down. She was a humanitatian, an abolitionist, and a conductor of the Underground Railroad. She helped free over seventy slaves by helping them cross the border into the north. She risked her life and freedom to help many people improve their lives. She is known as a heroine, not only for her great deeds or intent, but also because of her conquest over the obstacles against her at that time.
Being a woman was hard at that time she lived. Her rights were already limited as an African-American. Imagine that you glass is full. You are a human. Now you’re a black human, you’re glass is half full. Now you’re a black woman, and half of that is gone. You have a glass, one fourth full of rights. That is what Harriet Tubman had, and she went beyond it. She broke the laws of the time to achieve something greater, which is that all human life is real and should be respected.
I have a soft spot for females in history. I took a Women’s History class last semester, and it opened my eyes to how very few times women are mentioned in history. It also opened my eyes to the world from a woman’s perspective. I should’ve known the perspective, but suddenly I found myself questioning these laws, questioning from what people say is wrong and what is actually right. When I was young, I knew that Harriet Tubman was important and why, but I never understood what it meant for her to be mentioned in history. She was, in fact, a heroine known for her courage and great deeds.
Sammy pales in comparison to Harriet Tubman. Why, to even suggest that the two profiles be placed next to each other is an insult to Harriet Tubman. Yet it is good apply the word to numerous levels of good deeds and sizes of courage. However, I don’t perceive as Sammy to be a hero. I perceive him to be a fool. Sammy quits his job in the defense that the manager treated the girls unfairly. It sounds like a good reason at first, but a second thought makes it sound like a silly reason. The argument and the humiliation was over bathing suits and lewdness, not over lives. No one was hurt by the crime they were reprimanded for, but no one but a girl’s feelings were hurt by the reprimand. I’m sure there have been numerous times where Sammy has felt differently than the manager. Only now, does Sammy actually do something about it and only because there are pretty faces involved.
If Sammy possesses heroism, it is biased and unhealthy. He tells himself and others he does it for “little people” but really he is doing it to gain recognition and praise because he has led a mundane existences in a supermarket. Did Harriet Tubman free seventy people and more because she lack praise and attention? I don’t think so.

Answers to pages 6,8,20

Page6.

1. The North Wind is furious and stubborn. He seems to think the harder he tries from one angle, he will win. He fails to see other options. The Sun is smart, and he is more willing to approach from different angles.

2. The North Wind was attempting to force the cloak from the man, therefore he held it tighter, not to mention the fact that by blowing harder on him, he only made it colder and therefore, more of a need for the cloak.

3. The Sun was more successful because he tried two ploys, to beam gently then beam harder. Because he made the atmosphere warmer, the man found less need for the coat, then gave it up completely. These moves were persuasive and comfortable, not forceful.

4. The human is the a part of the bet, and also, metaphorically, a problem.

5. Persuasion works better than forcefulness. You are more capable of gaining followers and friends if you persuade them with kindness and friendship rather than using fear or violence. There is loyalty and a greater chance of success if you approach a problem from different angles. Do not be quick and do not be stubborn.

Page 8.

1. The part of the story which is the exposition is the first sentence which clarifies the setting and the characters. He only uses one sentence to set up the dramatic situation.

2. Because he is mulling over the decision to return with the high officials, and with the question, he gives them his answer and reason for not complying. It serves the purpose to teach the officials his personality and to allow them to understand.

3.The story tells us that Chuang Tzu appreciates life over titles and privileges, and he prefers to be happy than honored.

Page 19/20.

1. The hard details that stand out to me are the group of females and how they are deisgned, the overweight female in the plaid bikini, the taller, slimmer female with the uncompromising face, and the beautiful center female who has led the group. The way they walk through the aisles and the way their feet stand on the cold tile ground. This close attention paints a vivid intimate scene that creates familiarity.

2. He draws him from observation that he is both cruel in description and kind and emotions, young and somewhat knowing. He seams to me to be a boy of questionable nobility. His heroism does nothing for the girls’ embarrassment, yet it makes him seem like he has standards, that he can’t work for a business that has policies or has workers that follow inane policies of a dress code. I don’t know if the situation would’ve been any different if it had been a sex that Sammy was not attracted, perhaps male men in bathing suit, that Sammy would’ve made the same decision to quit. Because it is first person, you are able to understand the character from both an outside point of view being the reader, and inside point of view from the story telling.

3. The second long part seems to be the exposition because it claims the setting and the purpose, not just the characters. The detailed portrait of the Queenie gives the character emotional value to the first person narrative and possibly to the reader.

4. He begins to see them less as objects to look at and more as young girls he would know.

5. Dramatic conflict becomes apparent when the manager comes onto the scene. When he confronts the girls on their lack of clothing is what brings crisis, and the climax of the story is the discussion between the girls in Sammy’s aisle and the manager.

6. Sammy quits his job to gain the attention of the girls, who actually don’t give them their clear attention for very long, if not at all.

7. Nothing to me really hints at anything. Maybe the fact the girl keeps blushing, and Sammy keeps noticing it. Nothing foreshadows it to me.

8. What I understand from the conclusion of the story is that people play with fire knowing the consequences. That there are no reasons for stupidity, no reasons for heroism, and no reasons for order. Policies, rules, and societal understanding is a made up idea that inflicts us with constant pointless reality. He meant that easily it could be Sammy up there, after someone quits their job over “principles,” and that he has likely ruined his chances of getting a job by quitting like that. There are rarely second chances, and that selfish reasons will rarely get you anywhere.

9. Supermarket society is banal and intolerable.

First, An Introduction

I have started a blog on blogger.com due to the academic requirements of my teacher.

I already have a blog on livejournal.com that is highly personal, shared between me and close friends, therefore this shall be a simple log of my open, public thoughts.

First, an introduction.

1. My names is Catherine J. Watson
2. I'm an Art Major so far, with a Minor in Japanese. I started taking graphic design courses at first, but I now feel a lack of loyalty to the study. I am now exploring options in sculpture and illustration.
   
3. I am half Mexican-American and half Caucasian-American. It explains why my last name is English, and my appearance is more of a darker complexion.
4. I like learning how to make different things. For instance, a cardboard city has been my dream this whole summer.
   
5. I like a good plot and descriptive, unique writing
6. I love comics that are about more than superheros such as Persepolis, The Watchmen, Blankets, and Demo. All which are comics that explore human behavior and the relationship between people and the world around them.