Book vs. Movie

            The movie and book for The Handmaid’s Tale were different in displaying the story. I liked reading

 

 the book and the movie made it easier to understand some of the things that I did not get in the book.

            One of the main things in the book that made it difficult for me to read and comprehend was the continuous switching of past and present voices from Offred. In the book she would come across something and it would trigger her memory and she would have a flashback and relate that experience to what she was just doing. Offred in the book had a lot of flashbacks to the academy where she was being trained to become a handmaid, in the movie it never showed any of that. In the movie it clearly differentiated the present and flashbacks that Offred had. I was never confused on when Offred was having a flashback or when it was showing her in the present. 

            The book showed Offred on a more personal level because the reader heard her thoughts and feelings. In the movie the viewer can only see is the emotion that Offred shows on her face and by her body language. I like reading the book better because I could read and sense her feelings. It made me as a reader understand her feelings and be able to relate to her. In the movie I could imagine how she would feel but could not be positive because the actress did not show a lot of emotions.

            The movie did a better job of clarifying little things that the book mentioned, but did not go into detailed. The opening part of the movie shows Offred’s flashback of how she came to the Republic of Gilead. In the beginning of the book I was not clear on what had happened to Offred, her daughter and husband. The movie displayed her husband being shot by the guard, which appeared as if he died. In the book she goes through a few scenarios on what had happened to her husband. The ending on the movie was not clear either to me, I did not know what had happened to Offred and Nick and the baby that they had conceived together. The book left the reader to imagine what had happened to Offred in the end, but the movie showed her being freed and living in the mountains waiting for Nick to come back with her daughter. I believe this is the way the director of the movie wanted to portray the ending the way they wanted it to end.

            The movie showed more excitement when Offred was receiving her gifts from the Commander. In the book the reader could tell that Offred liked getting the gifts, but it was not clearly described how much she like them. In the movie she showed how much she enjoyed the lotion and magazines by her facial expressions. The movie showed them more as gifts then just things she received from the Commander.

            In the book during the birth ceremony it seemed a lot more upbeat and happy then it did in the movie. In the book it seemed as if everyone was happy and excited for the new birth. In the movie the expression on the wives and other handmaid’s faces did not show a time of joy. Similar instance happened during the ceremony where they murdered the man who had raped a handmaid. In the book the reader could feel how angry Offred felt in the way this man was being punished. In the movie she seemed more nonchalant and was more of an observer. In the book the reader understood her feelings, but the movie did a better job of showing what had happened to the man. It made it clear how horrible it was and how involved the other handmaid’s were.

            Overall I think that I would rather watch the movie because it made more things easier to understand, but the book was a very emotional book and that made it easier to relate to. The movie and book were very closely tied together.

             

           

Topic Proposal

 The guiding question that would help me understand Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tail is why only the women were tested for fertility and not them men. I feel that if it was so important for their society to produce then why didn't they test the men to so that the two fertile people could get together to produce a child. I want to learn if there is a major difference in the fertility of women and men over time. I plan to research records and statistics regarding fertility of both women and men over time to help with this paper. If there is a major difference between the fertility of women and men then I want to see if Atwood portrayed them completely. I chose this topic because there were several instances in the book where Atwood talked about ways to show if women were fertile and not, but not if men were. It confused and irritated me reading these parts because it seems so simple to just test the men as well and get two fertile people together. I know that male dominance will never go away in our society because it has been around so long. I realize that in this book testing men for fertility would cause a dent in the male ego or dominance. I believe that if the "perfect" society was really striving for children that much which was emphasized by the book they would test male fertility as well. I feel like researching this topic would help me better understand why Atwood choose not to write about men being tested as well. It would put a lot of instances in the book together in a way that makes sense to me. I plan to put a little of everything above into my paper and hopefully when I am done understand the book a little bit more.

talk.org

Thesis Statement

1.  (Weak) I'm going to write about Darwin's concerns with evolution in The Orgin of the Species.
     
     Darwin's concern with survival of the fittest in The Origin of the Species leads him to neglect a potentially conflicting aspect of his theory of evolution-survival as a matter of interependence.

2.   (Weak) An importand part of one's college education is learning to better understand others' points of view.
    
       Although an important part of one's college education is learning to better understand others' points of view a persistent danger is that the students will simply be reuired ot substiture the teacher's answers for theones they grew up uncritically believing.

3.   By inventing terms, such as "loose fit" and "relaxed fit", the jean industry has attempted to normalize, even glorify, its product for an older fatter generation.

       (Weak) The jeans industry targets its advertisements to appeal to young adults.

4.    (Weak) Othello is a play about love and jealousy.

       Although Othello appears to attack jealousy, it also supports the skepticism of the jealous characters ober the naivete of the lovers.

5.    (Weak) The songs of the punk rock group Minor Threat relate to the Feelings of indiciduals who dare to be different. Their songs are just composed of pure emotion. Pure emotion is very important in music, because it serves as a vehicle to convey the important message of individuality. Minor Threat's songs are meaningful to me because I can identify wiht them.

      The punk rock group Minor Threat uses emotional lyrics to appeal to their target audience, which considers itself individualistic and therefore the lyrics must convey a message of individuality.

My Thesis Statement:

The tragic My Lai Massacre is virtually unknown to the public, and history of the Vietnam war because it shows an unfavorable light on the United States.
1. No.
2. Yes original and arguable.
3. Yes

sillysoft.net

Source Evaluation

Author Robert C Prewitt. On google it came up saying that Prewitt was a United States Marine. It did not have any information about his term in Vietnam. The article was written in February 2006. Prewitt's article had information regarding the Quang Ngai Province, which is my essay topic. It describes the area and enemy surrounding him. Since it is a personal experience reference I did not try to search elsewhere. The fact that it was published in the Marine Corps Gazette made me feel that I could trust it.

Amazon.com
Tim O'Briens lecture was film of what he said. I do not know when the lecture was given, it was not on the website. I know that the lecture was given at Brown University. It was also on their website so I feel that is ery creditabl. Since it had it written out and had audio I felt it was very reliable. The lecture was very informative and O'Brien talked about numerous stories and experiences.

Robert C Prewitt. Marine Corps Gazette. Quantico; Feb 2006. Vol. 90, Iss. 2; pg 63, 2 pgs.

O'Brien, Tim. "Writing Vietnam". President's Lecture. Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. 22 Oct. 2010. Lecture.

Mid Session Check In

Dear Mrs. Cline,

This class has been very enjoyable. My biggest challenge has been writing the papers, I have a difficult time grasping the concept of literary analysis. I am learning and trying to write A papers, and it is difficult. The biggest success I have had would be correcting and learning from my mistakes. I think that my challenges and successes are fairly equal.
The readings have been really interesting and were greatly informative for me. I have never read poems or stories that were so graphic. The poems gave me a lot of different emotions reading them. I enjoyed reading O’Brien and Huze. I have never read a book about war and what happens during a time of war, but those two authors were great to read. It broadened my horizons on that topic by reading them.
Literary analysis is different because the writer does not talk about his or hers experiences as much, or that is not the main point of the paper. The point of the paper is to really understand the writing and what the author is trying to get across. It is hard to write literary analysis papers, at least for me.
My goal is to get better at writing literary analysis papers and keep learning about them. I want to become efficient in writing them. I want to improve my last two essays in case I choose to use them for the final portfolio. My overall goal in this class is to accomplish an A, so I just need to keep improving my work and learning to achieve that.

Sincerely,

Kirsten Lambertson

Summary vs. Analysis

Summary vs. Analysis

“On the Rainy River”

Summary:

            Tim O’Brien talks about his way of becoming a soldier. He tells the reader about his life, going to college, his job, and his girl friend. He goes home after work one day and receives his draft notice. His body goes into a mental overload and shuts down. He has an extremely important decision to make that will change his life as he knows it. He has two choices and both will change his life. Tim can either go to war in Vietnam or flee to Canada. One day after work Tim goes on a drive searching for something to help him in this difficult decision. After all his driving he ends up at this lodge. An old man runs the lodge and allows Tim to stay. The old man doesn’t ask any questions and allows Tim to fall into his everyday chores. Tim works for the old man for a couple days until the old man decides to take him fishing. Once they get to the river Tim breaks down, and cries until he can’t anymore. Tim leaves the next morning knowing what his choice is.

Analysis:

            Tim is an average college student, balancing school, a job and a girlfriend. When Tim receives his draft notice he is angered because he has a life. He does not want to give up his life at home and go to fight in Vietnam because he does believe the war is right. Tim thinks that people who support the war should go and fight it in full. Life is unfair to Tim because he is left with two options that both require his life to change. Tim does not want to go to war in Vietnam and he does not want to flee to Canada. He takes a trip and comes to a lodge where he believes the old man was his savior. The old man takes him to a river where Tim makes the final decision. Tim considers himself a coward and goes to Vietnam to fight the war he does not agree with.

image found at faculty.smu.edu.

Tim O'Brien Review

Tim O'Brien Response

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-zBIqqA32c

Sean Huze, "The Sandstorm"

My first response while reading the play was sadness. It was very disturbing reading about all the deaths and casualties. SGT Casavecchia was like a narrator for the eight Marines and their stories. The two stories that stuck out to me were LCPL Dodd’s and SRG Casavecchia’s. LCPL Dodd’s story made me the saddest because it was about killing hundreds of innocent people of all ages. In the beginning of his speech, he had no feelings to what he or others were doing. That all changed when he was walking through hundreds of dead bodies and came across a little boy. It made my stomach clench reading that scene and did now writing about it. SRG Casavecchia’s is about protecting a town and how gracious they were of the Americans. The way he described it sounded like a little town somewhere here where kids played soccer and no war. The people their accepted and went out of their way to accommodate the Marines in any way they could. He said that it was hard leaving because it was like saying something is more important than those people’s lives.
Each story had a different meaning and point to prove, and all in the end were very sad. People hear about the war daily and say how much they support it. I honestly don’t know if I support it or not because I am not clear on what is going on. Why? No one talks about it. Yes, it was hard for me to read each of their stories, but it brought to life what is going on over there. Yes, I understand there are bad people there, but is their life worth hundreds of innocent ones? I don’t have an answer to that, and if I did I am not sure it would make a difference. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want our troops of any group to be killed, but did we get victory when thirteen of our men were killed and hundreds of their people were killed? How many of those people have done something to harm us, or agree with the people that have? Those are questions that cannot be answered, and never will be. What had that little boy done that had to be repaid with his life? Or the families that so kindly allowed our Marines’ hospitality? It might seem as if I don’t support war, but I don’t think that is entirely true. I know that my freedom right now is from people losing their lives, and I cannot ever repay them. Yet, I believe that for everything there is a limit. If we are killing more citizens then the bad people who started this, is it worth continuing? How many innocent lives are we going to surrender to these evil people? I don’t want to have to do that anymore.
Sean Huze did a great job with portraying stories that even though might be upsetting, we needed to hear. Those eight Marines went through hell and lived to tell about it. I believe they should tell anyone who listens. They did things that I cannot even imagine in my wildest dreams. Were they the right things, or wrong things? There is no answer because at the time, to them they were probably doing what they thought was right. This play is very heart-breaking, but is beautiful in its own way.

Responding To A Poem

One of the poems that stuck out to me was Photograph from September 11^th by Wislawa Szymborska. It made me remember that horrid day and the days that followed it. The way Szymborska described the people in mid air just made me cringe. The opening of the poem read,

“They jumped from the burning floors—

            One, two, a few more,” (Szymborska Line 1-2)

In my mind I could visualize the people jumping for their lives and feeling remorse about it. It seems so unfair that they had no choice but to burn alive or jump. The author described that by catching them in mid air they weren’t gone yet and time would always stand still. The way Szymborska closed the poem I felt was the most appropriate, when she said,

“I can do only two things for them—

Describe this flight

And not add a last line.” (17-19)

By not giving the poem or picture and ending the lives in the picture were saved, they were free of death. It gives a warm feeling in my heart that in that picture the poem gives they are still alive.  

                The poem Song of Napalm by Bruce Weigl was a very sad poem. I have always heard that when people come back from a war they have flashbacks and have a hard time coping with them. This poem is a veteran looking out at his land and it turns into a horrid sight from when he was at war. This poem is for his wife and I feel as if he is trying to free them both of this image and how he behaved. I know that this vision of the little girl on fire has haunted him, but I don’t believe he could have done anything. So instead of thinking the worse he gives the little girl the best. In the poem Weigl says “I try to imagine she runs down the road and wings beat inside her until she rises above the stinking jungle and her pain eases, and your pain, and mine,” (30-33). He tries to imagine the best for the little girl because thinking that can allow him and his wife to move forward and put this behind them.  The closing stanza of the poem,

“Burning bodies so perfectly assume. Nothing   

Can change that; she is burned behind my eyes   

And not your good love and not the rain-swept air   

And not the jungle green

Pasture unfolding before us can deny it.” (41-45)

     is Weigl saying that although he can imagine the little girl was saved from the pain it didn’t actually happen and he will always remember what he saw. All veterans that go through war have similar flashbacks and probably wish they could erase things that they saw. This poem was very touching and sad.

Works Cited

Szymborska, Wislawa. “Photograph From September 11^th.”

Weigl, Bruce. “Song of Napalm.”

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Sam Hammil Response

I felt that Sam Hammil was saying that we are killing ourselves by not speaking, that we are scared of speaking up because that would make things real. I agree with him because I fall into the category of people doing that. I sometimes hold back things I would like to say because I am scared of the consequences. I feel that Mr. Hammil’s work relates to the poems because he is a witness. Each poem was a witness of some kind, they had had something done to them or were on the outside watching. He is a witness to prison, to rape and his assaults on a woman. He believes that writing is a way of speaking and goes around teaching people how to write. He teaches creative writing at prisons because he has been there and it helped him to speak up about how he was feeling and what had happened. He helps battered women because he can relate to them because he has once done the battery.

            A realistic, scar and sad fact that he mentions was that 3 of 4 women go back to the people who beat them. When it comes to women being beaten I never could understand how they could allow that or even go back to it. I have always said that I would never allow myself to be put in that position and take it. Yet, I think how many of those women had said that? Many. It amazes me how large of a roll emotions have in our lives. Love, fear, and guilt are some of many emotions that cause these women to go back to people who hurt them. Sometimes our minds don’t really comprehend what is happen or chooses to see it a different way because of our emotions.

            Mr. Hammil mentions, “Knowledge is the loss of innocence.” I have never thought about knowledge in that particular way, but he is spot on. Instead of using knowledge to our advantage to learn and prepare we don’t use knowledge properly then wonder how things got this bad. Important people only tell us what they think we should know what if we had the knowledge of everything that was going on around us? Would things be the same? Would we still be at war or feel the way we feel towards it? We as people are constantly living in a fear of the unknown. If we spoke up, whether we used our voice or writing, how much different would the world be? Sam Hammil wrote many things that people are afraid of saying and afraid of learning. I learned from him and saw things that I believed in a different perspective. We need more people to do and say the things he said because we need to make it known how important speaking is.

Vladimir Nobokov

Vladimir Nabokov

Nabokov believes that a good reader has 4 main qualities. These qualities are imagination, memory, a dictionary on hand, and some type of artistic sense. I agree with him and believe that readers should have each of these qualities. I think that a reader doesn’t need all of them to be a good reader because you can acquire artistic sense when you are reading. I believe a good quality that a reader should have would be to be able to play the story in their head like a movie. I can do this while reading a book and it helps me gather a better picture of the story. I can visualize exactly the way a character will look or how they walk. I consider myself a good reader because I have a little of all the qualities that Nabokov mentioned. Throughout the paper Nabokov put things that I knew in a new perspective. In his opinion the worst thing a reader can do is make themselves the hero or heroine. Sometimes I feel that is the point of a book, not of all books, but some. He also mention that there is 3 types of writers; story tellers, teachers, and enchanters. It was weird reading about that because it would seem that while reading a book it would be obvious to realize which of the three the author was trying to be. Yet, thinking back to the last book I read the author was a bit of all three. By Nabokov mentioning them I thought back and realized that most authors are all three, but usually dominated by one.

Introduction Video!