my blog

Allende's House of Spirits

2005-04-16T04:46:00.000-07:00

Ideology was all throughout the House of Spirits. As mainly discussed, Esteban Trueba had some strong ideological views. He was basically all about the rich. If you weren't rich you could never compare to someone like him. One part that angered me was when Jean de Satigny spied on Blanca and found her with Pedro tercero, told Esteban, and he beat her senselessly. What I would like to know is why it was ok for him to rape peasants but his own daughter can't even be with a peasant for love. I know that back then it was not accepted, but he seemed to take things to extremes. I also thought that it was great how by the end of the book, Pedro Tercero made something of himself. Clara tries sticking up for Blanca, and Esteban gets very angry and beats her too. Every time when someone tried to shut down something Esteban said he got very angry. Another part is when Blanca becomes pregnant. Esteban forces her to marry Satigny. He just couldn't have his daughter being pregnant without someone sensible to blame it on. To me that didn't do anything except make a few peoples lives harder.
Also, going back to the discussion we had in class about whether Esteban loved Clara or not, I would have to say no. Personally, I think the only person he loved was himself. He was so selfish, and everything had to be his way. He never even had any good relationships with his kids. He spoke terribly of them all the time. Another example of ideology was his son Jaime. Jaime believed in giving everything he had to help anyone he could. Oh, but Esteban thought this was just terrible. Anyone these days would think that a person like that was just awesome. No interest once so ever except to help others.

Antigone

2005-04-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

I liked the story of Antigone. I thought that she was very courageous. It had to take a lot of guts for her to do what she did. Even her own sister was to much of a coward to stand by her side. I know if that were my brother I would have done the same thing regardless. In relation to something of modern society you could relate it to the issue of seperation of church and state. They are trying to prohibit prayer in the public school system. Society is split on this issue. Some parents are outraged at the idea that their child is praying in public school, some think it is alright. I suppose that if the child went against the decision of society it would be like the story of Antigone.

Gregorio Cortez

2005-03-01T13:05:00.000-08:00

This story was a rather interesting one. I didn't really mind reading it. I liked how he was such a legend. They start off w/ just people singing about him. I also like how he's so known that people just helped him hide the whole time. Even at the end he talked them out of hanging him, and a girl was going to get him out of jail. Until he was poisoned. I would say he is a rather unlucky guy.

the blood wedding

2005-02-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

This story wasn't too appealing to me. I think one thing that may have changed the story quite a bit was to just simply change the title. Obviously, the first thought someone would think of with the title blood wedding, is a wedding with death involved, which was the case. I also didn't really understand the whole point of that lullaby, or whatever it was when they were talking about that horse(what was the point of that?) I did think it was a little interesting at first though, like when leonardo was outside the brides house on his horse, I was thinking maybe he was stalking her, and something interesting was gonna happen, but no. It also might have been a little better if they described the knife fight at the end.

The Awakening

2005-02-01T08:06:00.000-08:00

I found this book to be rather dry actually. Although it was written very well, with great detail. The first time anything exciting even happened was about half way through the book when edna threw the vase and wedding ring at the ground. Other than that nothing of excitement happened.

This book was also rather disappointing. Throughout the whole book you are wondering what's going to happen with edna, thinking she will be miserable forever, but knowing that she is in love with robert. It was a shame that back in that time period women had to remain trapped in a loveless marriage. I would hate my life too if i had to sit at home and do nothing while servants did every little thing for me and my husband was gone at work all day, and even when he did come home he would go out to the club.(although maybe i would like that!) I think that it was pretty lame of edna to commit suicide in the end. Yes, maybe she was miserable and would never be happy, but she did have children. I am not really sure if it was premeditated. B/C if you look at the one aspect, she did ask for dinner like she had intentions of coming back, but then she never even slept the night before, making her very tired, and she just kept swimming. She had to have known that eventually she would be too damn tired to swim back.

the yellow wallpaper

2005-01-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

I did not like this story very much. I thought it was rather boring. Throughout the whole story I was basically wondering what was going on. Although I must say the author did a great job of acting as though she was crazy. The whole time I thought maybe she was in a haunted house or something and no one believed her, until the end when she was the one trapped inside this wallpaper. It was so weird. I also wondered if maybe there was some kind of hidden meaning...if john was really her husband, or maybe her doctor. I was not really sure.

Fredrick Douglas

2005-01-21T15:15:00.000-08:00

In regards to the Fredrick Douglas story we read, I thought that this was very powerful. He discusses things in the story I would have never even imagined. Knowing of slavery is one thing, but actually knowing what they went through is a completely different story.

Right off the bat Douglas goes to say of not knowing who his father was, what his own age was, and barely who his mother was. He could not read or write. Later on in the story as Douglas begins to learn to read, by slowly learning the alphabet and such only to find out he wished he hadn't. He shows such ambition when his mistress could no longer teach him. He would go out and trick little white boys and teach himself. He made mention in one passage where he was jealous of his fellow slaves, wishing he had their level of ignorance. Learning to read only made him realize more the brutality, and how inhumane these poor people were treated. He witnessed a lot of beatings, and was a victim of some of these violent crimes. He eventually started fighting back and making sure that he was no longer the victim of such violence, yet he still was trapped in slaveries arms.

I think in this narrative Douglas wanted it to be known the experiences that went on in these peoples lives. The passages were so real and descriptive, as if the reader was actually there. He wanted us to get a sense of their lives were like. I think he was also trying to make us get a sense that everyone is equal, by making everyone see the disgust in slavery. He also showed what kind of person he was. He showed us that he accomplished a lot with hardly anything to work with.