Fun Home on Broadway!

I don't know if anyone is still checking the blog, but I saw this today and thought I would share. She is so cool :)

Final thoughts

I want to start my post by saying thanks guys. The content of this class was not something I thought that I would enjoy. In the end, though, it was one of my favorites!

I would have to say that Trifles was, by far, my favorite piece that we have read. I have read the play in other classes and have acted out a modern interpretation in a theater class. Every time that I have looked at the story in the past it has just looked at the story as a whole. It really interested me that the women were, arguably, the smartest characters in the whole story. The men assume the women are focused on 'trifles.'

I also really like the bird symbols that we discussed in class. We talked about how the caged bird represented Mrs. Wright, who was held back by  her husband. The women even reflect that she was happier before she was married. An interesting idea that occurred to me about the bird is that, in its death, it was representative of Mrs. and Mr. Wright. Through death, the bird gained its freedom. Through Mr. Wright's death, Mrs. Wright gained her freedom.

I had a great semester with all of you and I want to wish you the best with the rest of your semesters!

The End :(

Looking back through this semester I realize how much fun this class has been. We have had some amazing discussions, and Dr. Hanrahan has introduced us to some wonderful literature. I am being totally honest in saying that this course was by far the class I looked forward to most this semester, so thank you all for making it such a great experience.

Mainly because I just wrote my paper on it, one of the two texts that really stuck with me this semester is Pride and Prejudice (the other being The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao). I am sure I have mentioned before that my introduction to Austen was bred from the movie version of Pride and Prejudice which I absolutely adore, and so I expected to be a bit biased in my preference for the novel. I was a bit worried going into the reading that either the movie was going to be better, or the novel would be completely different that my preconceived notions about the text. If anything I learned that there are three worlds that can exist in the realm of literature: personal interpretation, written perception, and the literal translation through film. While no three of these realms were the same for my experience with Pride and Prejudice they were all similar enough that I was able to enjoy the text and our class discussions even more so.

The one character I find myself not doing justice towards is Charlotte Lucas, Lizzy's best friend. I am extremely sympathetic towards Charlotte, especially for the way in which she defends herself against her best friend's judgmental nature. She is not a particularly lucky character in the sense that she does not get to marry for love, however she is worthy of Elizabeth because she is a strong woman in her own sense. I find myself having to reserve my opinion on Charlotte's not getting to marry whom she pleases, especially because she says, "I am not romantic you know.  I never was.  I ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr. Collins’s character, connections, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state"(Austen 85). Charlotte knew what she was doing and I think both Austen's readers and Elizabeth will do best not to underestimate her!

Fun Home & Fun Class

This class was definitely one of the more interesting classes I have taken at Shepherd. I loved the material and I found myself relating to the material a lot more than I usually am able to. As a non-English major, I always worry about struggling in the classes but I found this class made it easy to participate in discussions and follow along with the readings.

I think my favorite piece that we read was Fun Home just because it was so unlike anything I had ever read before. I love that it flipped tradition on its head and focused on the relationship between a father and daughter instead of a mother and daughter. A lot of times that relationship is never really focused on but I like that they found a sense of security in each other that is usually reserved for mothers and daughters. Of course, big kid picture books are always cool. I would definitely read Fun Home again just for fun.

Good luck to everyone in your future studies and thank you for making my final semester at Shepherd so special. Study hard and don't give up!

You got this!

Moral Magoun

Reflecting on all of the great things we read this semester, my mind keeps returning to Freeman's "Old Woman Magoun."  I noticed a theme of morally conscious short stories throughout the semester with, "Mrs. Spring Fragrance," "No Name Woman," "New England Nun," etc.  However, this one seemed to have so many different ways it could have went, but Old Woman Magoun's choice ending in her granddaughter's death raises a moral question to the reader.  As a woman I somehow felt sympathetic towards the Old Woman. I am not sure I would have made the same choice, but what other option during the time did she have?  Freeman has created a situation much like Chopin in The Awakening, where death seems to be the only answer or escape from the problem.  The Old Woman tried to get the Lawyer Mason and his wife to adopt Lily, but was turned down. So for Old Woman Magoun, at a religious standpoint she believes is making a good moral decision for Lily.  As a child Lily is still innocent, and will obtain a better life in heaven, than if Nelson pawned her off to his dirty old friend.  Freeman is tricky in playing the devils advocate because she never has Magoun actually kill Lily.  She simply does not stop her when Lily says, "Why they are real sweet," Magoun replies "They are nice," then hurries Lily along.  So I am just wondering what you guys think. Does Freeman create a story in which the only outlet is death and the audience must sympathize with it?  Is Magoun morally wrong for turning her cheek to those "deadly nightshade berries?"  Or does anyone think there was an alternate solution to save Lily?

Just to Reiterate . . .

As the semester comes to a close I just want to revisit some of my favorite topics of discussion that we have had throughout the semester; particularly the discussions on The Sun Also Rises as well as Pride and Prejudice.
Hemingway's novel has so many elements that I wish we had more time to discuss: Brett's complex character in more detail, the elements and issue of violence within the domesticity of the novel, the relationships between the characters, the affect of the war on the characters etc. I had never read, or even heard of, this novel and allow me to say that I am so glad I have now. I wold like to, in the future, examine the elements within the novel more deeply, and even examine them in relations to other novels or compare and contrast other characters in similar literature.
Of course, among all of the Austen I have read this semester,the one novel that has become very dear to me is Pride and Prejudice. I know that the novel is Austen's most well known and it may not seem very original of me to love it so much, but I really do. I am completely enraptured by the characters that she has created within it, especially Lizzy, and I feel that there are so many more layers to be dug up on this novel. I also am fascinated by the novel because it is very different from her other novels, yet, it also possesses an air of sameness with them.
Both of these novels will be ones that I revisit both for pleasure and for academics. Their ability to be so interesting and easy to read, yet be so complex and academically applicable is very exciting and interesting to me.

Farewell.

I really enjoyed this course.  It was nice to get away from the traditional lectures, and even the traditional seminars that we English students are accustomed to.  I felt that the leniency and lax environment made this class all the more exciting.  I was super enthused to attend each and every class that I did.  It of course, would not have been the same without all of my awesome colleagues that were in the course as well.  I felt that you all had wonderful contributions to the readings.

One aspect of this course that I am still weighing on is the fact or fiction of Fuku and Zafa within Oscar Wao.  Like Morgan has said before, these characters could believe in the curse simply because they are utilizing it as a scapegoat for their personal laziness of making a better life for themselves.  I would also argue, though, that the curse and its characteristics only seem to pop up within the text whenever the Dominican Republic political system (Trujillo and Captian, years later) are tampered with.  It seems as though, that Junot Diaz is trying to expose the stereotype of Dominican Republic people and illustrate how this stereotype is often a misconception.  I also feel that Diaz is trying to show that Trujillo was a real person, like Hitler, and did a great deal of damage to this culture.  Many of us were never exposed to Trujillo and his torturous ways until this novel.  I, personally, had never heard of him.  I never knew that the Dominican Republic was bound by such a monarchist environment.  I feel that in a way, Diaz is trying to let other cultures read about this isolated culture and understand that the Dominican Republic has went through much of the same turmoil that other nations have experienced.

Again, I really enjoyed this class with each and every one of you, and I wish you all the best in you finishing semesters.

-Brittany

Society & Gender Roles

             While I have enjoyed looking closely at the way that gender roles are portrayed in texts throughout this course, I found myself interested in a few  of the readings more than others. The three that I liked the most were The Awakening, “Old Woman Magoun,” and Trifles. I wrote my final essay on how Edna in The Awakening and the grandmother in “Old Woman Magoun” used death as an escape from the way the views and expectations that society places on individuals. While society views death as a bad thing, I feel as if death was used in a way that is accepted in these circumstances. I also enjoyed Trifles because society portrays women as the less educated sex, but in this story, the women use their domestic knowledge to figure out the motive behind the murder, which the males overlooked completely. This shows that society’s views on genders can affect each individual differently, and these views are not always entirely accurate. 

Poetic Death Scenes

I am also interested in reflecting on our texts this semester that involved poetic death scenes. Specifically, Edna's suicide, Oscar's murder, and Lily's "euthanization." In the case of Edna, she exits the world that sought to oppress her identity. The words that describe her death suggest a peaceful and natural departure, "The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace." (Chopin 115). Although Oscar is murdered, at his death scene he seems to exude power and confidence that he hadn't previously. Just about his last words are, "Because anything you can dream, you can be." (Diaz 322). Even though he was killed, I believe Oscar really lived right before the end came, and that matters. In perhaps one of the most controversial texts we read and discussed this semester, Old Woman Magoun essentially allows her little girl to die by way of poison berry, to save her from another Barry. In pondering the complexities of the situation, I don't think any can deny the love that Old Woman Magoun must have felt for Lily to go to such great lengths to save her from a life of misery. Again, we see this theme of poetic death as Old Woman Magoun leads Lily into death with words such as, "There where you are going there is always light, and the commonest things shine." (Freeman 429). These texts challenge us to confront complex issues and re-examine our ideas about life and death.

Fanny Fern

My favorite piece that we read this semester was Fanny Fern’s writings. I love the way that she uses humor and sarcasm to bring awareness to inequality issues. One of my favorite columns by her is “Independence.” The rhetorical questions that she used and the fact that they rose in stakes interested me. She is ridiculing what women were and were not allowed to do and she makes it clear that she believes that societal rules were absurd. Even though “Independence” is one of my favorite, it is not the only piece written by Fanny Fern that derides societal rules. “A Law More Nice Than Just” ridicules laws that make it illegal for a woman to wear pants, even though, as Fern points out, wearing pants makes it easier for a woman to walk outside when it has been raining. I love Fanny Fern and I plan to read more of her columns.

So much Death!!!

      Throughout this semester, one of the main themes that I interpreted from the selected texts is death and more specifically death when one isn't able to express their true selves (for whatever reason). It came up in The Awakening, Edna wasn't able to be the independent, free woman that she wished to be and saw her only escape as death. Bruce, in Fun Home, wasn't able to accept his sexuality and also saw death as his only escape. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao also contained a character who saw death as his only way out of a life where he was unhappy with himself. I think it was a great text to end with, because unlike the others, Oscar's death ended up feeling more meaningful, at least in my personal interpretation. He was finally able to accept himself, yes he still died, but at least it wasn't a death filled with resignation.

Sedaris, of course

Though I have enjoyed just about every piece of work we read in this course, "Go Carolina" was my favorite. When we read this piece, I blogged about how much I loved Sedaris and his work, which still stands true. I feel that some literature is absolutely meant to be serious and classical, but what would the English world be without some humor, crude humor, that is. The great thing about English are the never ending possibilities of books, poems, short stories, etc., and the even better part is the mystery behind what they're all about. Because I was familiar with Sedaris, I knew his short story would be funny, but for some who have not read anything by him, his humor may have taken them by surprise.

I just enjoy things more thoroughly when they can make me laugh, so Sedaris's writings are always a go to.

Thanks for a great semester, everyone!

Plath as a "No Name Woman"

Charles' post on Sylvia Plath got me thinking about Kingston's "No Name Woman" and the parallels between them.  Plath was known for writing poems about the miserable experiences of pregnancy and birth, and as Charles pointed out in "Metaphors", her feeling like nothing more than a vessel to reproduce.  That led me to wonder how the aunt in Kingston's story must have felt.  Was she overjoyed to be pregnant by someone she loved rather than the man she was forced to marry in "hurry up weddings" (Kingston 2744) or was she raped and left to deal with the consequences.  Did they both think life would turn out differently if they did what someone else wanted only to find out that this world was not for them or were they just misguided self-centered people destroying the lives around them.  Regardless of the circumstances the parallels are inevitable.  You have two miserable women who feel they have no escape but suicide leaving families who are devastated in a myriad of ways behind to wonder what happened.

Sylvia Plath

Among our earliest reading this semester, I was particularly drawn to Sylvia Plath’s poem “Metaphors.” What attracted me to the piece, which is about pregnancy, was its ambivalence toward the event. To me, Plath was courageous and honest about her feelings. Ordinarily, women are supposed to feel happy and joyous about carrying a child. But Plath, noting that she had lost her identity as a woman and an artist, asserts: “I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf” (line 7). Plath’s creativity is no longer recognized by society, and she laments her loss in verse. In other words, the writer has been reduced to a seed carrying vessel, like a melon. She is dehumanized, of secondary importance to the embryo growing inside her, objectified into a “fat purse”(6). Plath recognized that pregnancy had permanently altered the trajectory of her life. I note, too, that she committed suicide. One senses resentment about the thing growing inside her. “Metaphors” is a short but powerful poem that is pregnant with meaning (pun intentional).

Mrs. Peters' Transformation

As we are nearing our final, we are going to be reflecting on some of the texts we read a while ago.  I would like to revisit my favorite text, Susan Glaspell's "Trifles."  Although it is easy to see how Minnie Wright changed by making the decision to get out of an oppressive marriage through the means of murder, I would argue that Mrs. Peters is the most dynamic character who we as readers have a chance to get to know.  At the beginning of the play, Mrs. Hale is the character who stands up to the men and defends Minnie.  When the County Attorney is insulting Minnie's housekeeping abilities, Mrs. Hale tells him that "men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be" (1970).  This line is full of sass.  Not only is she defending Minnie's housekeeping, she is in an underhanded way defending her murder; John Wright may not have been as innocent as he seemed.  However, in the beginning of the play while Mrs. Hale is defending Minnie, Mrs. Peters is defending the actions of the men.  When the men leave the kitchen and Mrs. Hale states "I'd hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around and criticizing", and Mrs. Peters responds "of course it's no more than their duty" (1971).   Mrs. Peters refuses to excuse Minnie's actions, or frown upon the actions of the men, stating "the has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale" (1976).  However, as she and Mrs. Hale explore the kitchen and discover the dead canary, Mrs. Peters begins revisiting her own moments of oppression, recalling the time that a boy killed her beloved kitten with a hatchet (1975).  When the men return to the kitchen, the County Attorney remarks to Mrs. Peters "for that matter, a sheriff's wife is married to the law" (1976).  I have always thought of this snide remark from the attorney as being Mrs. Peters' breaking point.  In this comment he is reducing Mrs. Peters to simply being a product of her husband, no longer her own person, and she realizes the full strength of the oppression of a patriarchal society.  Mrs. Peters is ultimately an important character who goes from persecuting Minnie Wright to being able to relate to her, and protects her.

Book Banning in the United States: The Texas Textbook Massacre

Kristen’s post about the banning of Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao led me to post about book banning in the United States and its political implications. The state of Texas purchases more textbooks than any state in the nation. As a result, Texas, not California, sets the national trend that determines which textbooks are distributed and which are effectively black-listed. The Texas legislature is ultra-conservative, and I would argue, regressive. We are indeed blessed to attend a liberal arts school like Shepherd University with its progressive English Department. Unfortunately, liberal arts schools are in the crosshairs of neoconservatives, who want to rewrite history and limit or eliminate critical thinking. Their political agenda is ideologically-based and it can only be characterized as extremely right-wing. Those who cannot think critically are easily controlled by political ideologues, as evidenced by the Texas legislature and its school boards. 

In some cases, deists like Thomas Jefferson are being excluded from history books! Forget about Thoreau, and Emerson: they are too radical and too critical in their critique of America, capitalism, and market fundamentalism. Junot Diaz? Out of the question!

Here is a link that provides some background information about the neocon agenda for education:

http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/182-texas-textbook-massacre

For additional information on this issue, simply Google Texas Textbook Massacre and peruse the sites.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Banned Books

As we wrap up the semester, I have been pondering over a discussion we had in class the other day about The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The novel was nominated for Shepherd University’s common reading book, but unfortunately, didn’t make the cut. Did the university not want a text with sexual activities and foul language representing the school? Did the majority vote simply go to another novel? Many of the individuals in class felt like incoming freshman would be mature enough to read this text, and I agree. College is the time to take the next step as a thinker. I really hope that the selection for the common read is not based off of length, because I think that Shepherd should want to challenge all of their students, not take the easy way out. However, I don’t want to imply that this type of situation happens only at Shepherd University (I love my school). For example, a school in New Jersey is intending to ban The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao from their curriculum entirely. Oscar Wao Banned?

            Dr. Hanrahan mentioned something in class something the other day that made me think: “We have to recognize that if books have the power to do great good for an individual, why can’t they cause harm?” Sure, in the wrong hands, there is a possibility that books can be “bad” (this really made me think of the Harry Potter paranoia). However, I believe that there is a greater chance that novels will inspire an individual. Banned books such as, Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin are literary classics that have impacted people’s lives. So what do you think? Does the title of a “banned book” have any stigma over the text?

            Overall, as I leave Shepherd University this semester, I am glad I have had the chance to read so many texts that display sexual and cultural diversity (thanks to the amazing English department).

P.S. Good luck on finals and have a great summer! I really enjoyed this blogging experience and being in class with all of you!!

Just Something To Share

So I'm pretty nervous about my capstone coming up and a friend suggested this thing called TED Talks for public speaking tips. I watched 30 seconds of one I was supposed to watch then got really distracted and clicked on others.

I ended up finding this video about the influence of animated movies on children. It happened to bring up "The Bechdel Test" which is hopefully familiar to you guys. (We talked about it when we were covering Fun Home.) I kept watching and it had some pretty interesting stuff.

I just wanted to see how others thought that this related to Fun Home, Alison Beckdel's message about women, or even connecting it to the stories we read in class.  

TED Talk Kids' Movies