I just turned on my computer and the top news story on my homepage reminded me of a post that Cathy wrote earlier, when we were reading July’s people, about defining minority/majority. The article talks about how Asian and Hispanic growth have slowed due to immigration laws, causing the government to push back estimates on [...]
Time and time again, through our class readings, we have witnessed how an author’s personal experiences influence their writing. Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People is no exception.
I found a very powerful video that does a wonderful job at describing how Gordimer was immensely impacted by her experiences growing up in apartheid South Africa. The video also [...]
“If the children need eggs, I bring you more eggs…He smiled at the pretensions of a child, hindering in its helpfulness.-That’s not your work” (96).
-As can be seen from this quote, in a way, the Smales were dependent on July all along, not just during the fictional black revolt in South Africa that Gordimer describes. [...]
It just hit me that Franz Kafka’s choice of last name for his main character (Samsa) is very similar to his own last name (Kafka). The arrangement of the vowels and consonants are the same for both names. Therefore, I decided to look up some information of Kafka’s background and I found that there are [...]
I came across an interesting video that someone made about the scenes involving the Underground Man and the soldier- it is a modern twist on Dostoevsky’s writing.
Here you can see that the Underground Man recognizes the soldier and desparately wants for the soldier to recognize him, to look him in the eyes.
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhrvb8wqF4A
See how these [...]
I was profoundly moved my Frederick Douglas’ description of how he worked after his escape: “There was no work too hard- none too dirty. I was ready to saw wood, shovel coal, carry the hod, sweep the chimney, or roll oil casks,-all of which I did for nearly three years in New Bedford, before I [...]
I decided to take the same approach that we used in class to gain a better understanding of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” through quotes. Here are some quotes that I marked in my book which stood out to me. (I apologize for not including page numbers for the quotes, but I am using a different version [...]
I really enjoyed reading Swift’s “Modest Proposal,” so I decided to write a satire of my own. Modeling my writing after Swift’s, I tried to use a lot of understatements and to write in a nonchalant, matter-of-fact tone. I got a little carried away so I apologize for this lengthy post. Here goes:
“Welcome to McDonald’s, [...]