Monday, December 7, 2009

The story of an hour

Kate Chopin is probably one of the best well known children short story writers of the 19th century. Chopin text “The story of an Hour” is an incredible short story that is packed with much information about women rights, the repression of women and foreshadowing. "The Story of an Hour" was published in the United States in 1849 during the time of the civil war and the gold rush. Most Americans women at the time were also fighting for rights just like African Americans and other of the time.

Kate Chopin works defines the time in which she was apart of. The text "The Story of an Hour", unveils how women of the time were mistreated and “their will was easily bended”, by male desires. Chopin had experienced a lot of this during her life time and wanted to give the world a better perspective of what was really going on in the household and women thoughts. Mainly the mistreatment that men were inflicting on women and the superiority men were giving at birth. During her time however she was not the most popular female author.

"The Story of an Hour" is one of Chopin many shot stories."The Story of an Hour" is about a girl who finds out that her husband has died in a train accident. Upon finding this information out she is stricken with sadness to the point she cries. Yet, during this crying process she feels joy because she feels free from the bondage of her husband. She is in utter happiness and can not understand why should is happy at the fact her husband will not be around.

Then she realizes that the reason she is happy is because she will have her own independence. This is where the reader has to unfold what is going on in the text this is a cry out for women independence in a male dominated society. Plus during this time women still did not have the right to vote. Chopin unfolds this so delicately because she depicts this by the women happiness in the story. The character Mrs. Mallard is proud of her independence, and she locks herself in a room. At first she does not come out of the room but when she is ready to come out her husband walks through the front door and she has a hear attack and dies.

A very conscience reader however would have picked up that she was going to have some type of heart condition due to the fact that in the beginning of the story it said “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble” (Chopin) This gives perfect foreshadowing to the fact that by the end of the story Mrs. Mallard has a hear attack. This is a perfect set up for what later happens in the story yet this untimely death is odd. 

Sunday, November 29, 2009

The yellow wall paper

I loved this story it has to be one of the best of the year. I love physiological thrillers they are so good. This story I felt highlight the treatment of women in the 1800 not only were women being treated unfair I felt that the yellow wallpaper described this dominance of attributes. In the story the main characters husband kept her from making any decision or doing anything at all that would have help her progress in fact he kept her like a prisoner who would not go crazy being treated this way. Even on page 356 she say he hates to even have me write a word if this is not male dominance to the max then I do not know what is. Not only is it unfair to be treated this way but it show how women where looked at as objects and or pet rather than equals.
I feel also that Perkins is writing for change and showing the world that believe it or not women can do the impossible and that they should be treated as equal I think that why the ending of the story is so dramatic when she step over her husband and walks away. Yet I felt this same message was trying to be delivered in Alcott's "A Whisper in the Dark,"

Monday, November 16, 2009

Tom Sawyer

I really enjoyed reading Tom Sawyer, it was a great story. However, I like the character Ragged Dick because he had more on a city-orientated lifestyle which I can relate to more. However, I did love Tom Sawyer's cleverness an country intelligence. He was very intriguing due to the fact he could work his way out of any situation and; I also enjoyed how he used religion making fun of it with the tickets in the bible. On Pg. 16 the quote "Oh come now you don't mean to let on that, you like it." I thought it was really clever how Tom tricked his friend into doing his work. Also, I thought it was interesting how Mark Twain depicted slaves in the book. Even though they were free, the slaves were still ignorant and distasteful.

On Pg. 19, I loved how Tom Sawyer referred to himself as “…if he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would have now comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body if obliged to do, and that Play consists of what a body is obliged to do.” Mark Twain, uses the character of Tom Sawyer to speak to audience and make a personal commentary about himself.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Yares of Black Mountain Prompt

What I found interesting about the story we read that no one in class seemed to mention is this notion of where in the world was this women going what was her final destination. Also, like Bill said in class what was the purpose of the description of the baron place? Why was this so relevant to the text? I felt the baron description had a deeper meaning that to city people country people seem dull and baron. I use to always wonder being from Miami what did people in the country do all day because with so much land there was no distraction or activities. What kind of life was this that you could have been so spread out from your neighbor that you would only see them once a week. I mean these people seemed to be so involved in nature doing their own farming and so forth. I just felt like it was a story to kind of mock or make fun of the country life. Plus the only reason why this girl was treated fairly was for the simple facts that she had a baby seemed like she would have been treated bad if the baby was not around. I really mainly did not like this story out of all the story we have read this is been the worst story of them out it seemed pointless and I was over analyzing everything because it was so pointless.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ragged Dick

So far through the text we have read we have discovered that girls and boys are quite different. I felt in reading a lot of these stories most of these girls were stereotyped into their roles the were sugar and spice and everything nice. For example you were not a women until your learned how to clean and act proper. Girls seem to have been taught how to act as opposed to a boy where it was learned. Also boys were the stereotypical boys that loved to play in the dirt and work. Ragged dick was a prime example sarcastic dirty and a harder worker he was a true mans man. Everyone seem to respect him and he was the hero of our text because he might have had a little bit of bad in him and gambled but he was a hard worker. Someone you could look up to. I felt this was unfair because if a girl gambled and did some of the things that ragged dick she would be ridiculed. Capitola tried to work and she was looked down upon and was almost taken to jail. Yet its ok for a boy to hustle on the street to make his way of living but not ok for a girl to do such a thing.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

First off in class we talked about how they put women in insane asylums because the husband could not deal with them anymore. Let’s face it nothing was wrong with here at all nothing that could be displayed as being insane Uncle and Dr. Karnac just teamed up and decided to put her in the insane asylum without her wanting to be put in there. The reason I could see is that she did not want to marry her uncle and out of his rage of her not doing what she wants he then therefore took matters into his own hands. So he could take all of her assets and all her money. I felt the best thing to summarize these events were "...for love of gain was as strong as love of science; both were amply gratified, and I, poor victim, was given up to be experimented upon, till by subtle means I was driven to the insanity which would give my uncle full control of my fortune and my fate." (p.246) Honestly I would have broke out and killed someone gave them a reason to call me crazy.
We see this absence of the mother and we see the importance of how important it is for a mother to be around to help with the growth of a child help her mature and develop into a women I fill Sybil never got that and also the protection. Sybil needed to be protected by men like her uncle but I wonder could her mother have even done that being a women of that time. I Really was appla

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Little Hand

Well since we allowed to be creative on this one. I will first say the old man hurricane he is the funniest character I have encountered thus far I am really thinking of making my face book profile of him. He is a rich senile and mean old man who gives smart remarks to everyone and is probably barley able to walk. I just felt such an attachment to this guy even the way he orders people around in New York as if he lived there. It reminded me of people back home in Miami a lot of older people come to Miami thinking that it is a great place to retire when it full of kids and a huge party life so I love this guys I cant say enough about how funny he is. Oh wait the part where he going to stick his walking stick down someone throat was pretty funny. Also, he also very sneaky with his plan with Capitola is very creative and scary. It shows that through time people still hold grudges and sometimes it never changes. Even when there to old to be holding grudges and should be doing the right thing. He defiantly defines the saying you can not teach and old dog new tricks he still lives in the mentality of his time. Yet it always takes something drastic for people to change.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

The Lamplighter Prompt

I really could not relate to much because i am not a girl so it is difficult. I have done yoga befor and it is relaxing. However i do feel this young girl is socialized to think that if you try hard and harder you can accomplish anything. This statement is not true even in the book gerty tries to change who she is but you can not. In class we talk about how hard it is to break out of diffrent class systems and how difficult that process is in everyday life. It very funny how they tell Gerty that she has to marry rich. By gerty doing this she is a monder day gold digger she is hoping for a rich husband. By todays standereds this is not what women represent.
In the video it says do not do anything for people to like you just be who you are. This is what young girls are told to say however this is not how they feel with all the advertising we have we have created an enviorment that tells boy and girls you are nto cool or pretty or you are an out cast if you do not do this or that. People are looked down upon by how they dress smell look and act the media creates this and that is why most of dress or act a certain way.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

UTC

Well in the novel I first want to say that as an African America it is very interesting to look at this text. The porail of slaves from their look to their diction is very interesting. I am actually half black and half white myself and I find it interesting how they portray some of the mixed slaves. Yet this novel is very different because the depiction of children comes form harsh times and is trying to show the strength of family (chapter 8). This is actually quite different from the other texts we have been reading. The reason being is the role that parents play in this book is quite different in uncle time cabin. The mother we are reading about is trying to save and nature her baby rather than teach the child how to be on it on. Also the circumstances are a lot harder during these kids childhood.

      Also the women in this story are a lot stronger than in the wide wide world. These women influence their husbands and also dictate things in the house. Mrs. Bird pretty much tells her husband how to deal with the run away slave and maintain the house hold. She shows her husband right from wrong without being yelled or screamed at. I was really impressed to see the power the women had in this book.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

the wide wide world

I feel the story switches the role of parents the mom being sick is transformed into more of the child and is care for by her daughter. The mom also you see is trying to provide everything for her daughter before what we can over see as her death. So she takes her on this shopping trip to buy her all the necessary essentials to become a women.

We see that the roles of mother versus the roles of father are completely different. We see that mothers are more compassionate than fathers. You rarely every see or hear the father talking to the daughter, however she is afraid of her father. Ellen seems to always avoid her father; Mr. Montgomery It seems the role of the father is to lay down the law. The mother on the other hand is more compassionate and caring and also shows a lot more emotion.

 

I feel that Ellen perceives her parents as the authority in her life that is responsible for her well being and her safety. She cares deeply about her religion and lives a very sheltered lifestyle and has no responsibilities. Everything she is going through is bran new for her.

 

Ellen wants her mother to be in her life forever without any change and does not want her mother to leave to always be there for here. Yet, she knows that she has to be strong and to do this journey alone.

 

 



Wednesday, August 26, 2009

About Me

My name is Camron Murphy I am from Miami Florida. I am majoring in Business and sociology. I feel if I study people and money I should be successful. I started a mini marketing company this summer with my friend, where we connect people from different industries together. Also, we help certain clients find homes and venues for fund raising events or parties for a reasonable price. For example if a TCU fraternity wanted to rent a hotel or a club to have a mixer or a banquet I can guarantee 20% lower pricing that what the owner would give them just because of how the company is set up.

If I was the chancellor of TCU I would change the parking situation and I would also change the tuition allowing most TCU tuition to only be raised by 15% total throughout four years instead of 8% each year. I feel that it is a little unfair that most seniors have seen an increase in their tuition each year that totals over 20%.
IF I could have dinner with three people dead or alive I would choose Martin Luther King, President Bill Clinton and Warren Buffett. These are probably the most intriguing men that I have every read about and I would ask them a serious of question on a lot of different topics
The reason I made a choice to come to TCU was because I was recruited to play football but after tearing my ACL I decided to focus more on my studies. It hurt and morally I was diminished but I did however find that I could apply my same competitive attitude toward the business would and still be just a successful. I am always striving to be the best at whatever task is put in front of me.

The reason I took this course is mainly because I wanted to be stronger in my writing skills (they are horrible) and also learn a little more about major American writers. Now that I understand what the class will be about I consider it a challenge to understand everything that I will learn because I am in fact ignorant to know most American writers.

So I do agree and will follow all the rules and regulation of this class syllabus. I feel my blog is simple and plain gives a little more incite to me and my world but I do believe that every good teacher has to love his or her work with a passion and has to understand the value of teaching and know how to teach. Many people are very knowledgeable but not able to teach they are what I call information mainframes. Meaning they hold a lot of information but lack the nessarty tools to be a full computer.