NRJ #2 - Childhood

Ishiguro uses the childhood of Kathy to set the stage for the entire story.  At the end of the story he ties everything back to all the experiences in childhood.  This is what every human being deals with.  Not only does their childhood form who they are, but it decides what choices we make to shape our future.  Being raised at Hailsham made the clones who they are and gave them the confidence to feel that they could change their destiny.  Other clones treated them differently because they had been raised at Hailsham.  It was not just a place, but a symbol of who Kathy, Ruth and Tommy are and how they are special. 

When Ruth, Kathy and Tommy were at the cottages it was their first experience with how the outside world viewed kids from Hailsham.  “I heard about this girl up in Wales,” Chrissie said.  “She was Hailsham, maybe a few years before you lot.  Apparently she’s working in this clothes shop right now.  A really smart one.”  “That’s Hailsham for you.”  Rodney said eventually, and shook his head as though in amazement.  (P.152)  This summed up how the other clones felt about the Hailsham kids and how they instilled an idea that the rules could be bent for the special kids from Hailsham.  This was their childhood affecting their present and forming their future.

Eventually, Kathy viewed her time at Hailsham as special and something that nobody could take away from her.  Once she had left Hailsham and her childhood, she was faced with the harsh realities of adulthood, responsibilities and the prison like conditions of social expectations.  Kathy clung to the happiest days of her life at Hailsham which was during her childhood.  This was different than what other clones experienced and like the rest of humanity, you learn that if you had a really good childhood then you were one of thelucky ones in life. 

Chopin Support for Thesis Activity

Thesis #1

When Chopin described Louise’s face “whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength” she is also describing the women of that era, repressed with the inner strength to want more. Chopin captures the struggle for equality when describing Louise’s thoughts at losing a good man and her happiness in spite of his death.  This shows what people are willing to lose to gain freedom.  Not only was this true in the 1900’s, but it is still true today.

Thesis #2

Chopin’s use of imagery when describing the beautiful spring day coincides with the thought coming to Louise that she is “free, free, free”.  These vivid images of “blue sky” and “sparrows” contrast with the stark images of death throughout the story.  Chopin hints at the idea that Louise is just now noticing the beautiful spring day.  She has been so fully oppressed by her societal role as a wife that life looked “gray and dead” before this moment.

Walker Extra Credit

let him speak

            He would like to speak out loud the disdain he feels for the people present at their wedding.  The disdain for the place he is taking her from.  How anyone could walk away from a woman so willing to let a man be a man, is beyond him.  He thinks back to when he first met her and is happy he took the initiative and started the conversation.  She looked at him the way a woman should look at a man and it made him feel invincible.  He will take her from this terrible place and help her be the woman she wants to be.  Take her children as his own and show her how a man should be.

Hemingway Extra Credit

My early life was extremely sheltered, I was raised in a Mormon household and pretty much had all Mormon friends.  I attended seminary in the morning before school and was the Young Women’s president at one time.  I left home at 17 and decided to see the world.  I traveled to other countries, lived in a few different places and saw things that I had only read about.  My life completely changed and when I returned home I was a different person.  During my time away I did things that people I grew up with would have judged and learned in my time of freedom that the world is much more complicated than I had known.  The world is filled with many colors of gray and nothing was black and white for me anymore.  Even though the people I grew up with were the same, I was not and I no longer felt comfortable around them or had anything to talk about.  I can see how Krebs feels seeing another side of the world and humanity.  He seems to only feel comfortable around other soldiers because they have seen some of the things he has seen and felt the fear that he felt.  He has done things his Mother would not be proud of and his mother can never comprehend what he has been through.  His and my alienation is self inflicted and not necessarily a bad thing.

SSRJ #4 – Minot

I had a difficult time getting into Minot’s “Lust”.  I re-read the first page a couple times, but once I really did concentrate on the story I found that it became an interesting read.  It hurt my heart to feel what the character was putting herself through.  This character reminded me of my best friend in High School and her desperate need to have a boyfriend or her inability to say “no” to them even if she wanted to.  I found myself shaking my head when I read “I thought the worst thing anyone could call you was a cock-teaser”.  If only young woman really understood how much power they possessed.  This girl obviously didn’t know her own worth.

The symbolism that Minot used throughout the story to describe the boy she was with at the time or the relationship she was in made this short story speak volumes about what the character was going through.  When Minot writes “Roger was fast.  In his illegal car” I instantly knew that this was a typical young bad boy that everyone eventually takes for a spin.  Music was used for symbolism as well.  The line in the story “By the time the band got around to playing “Wild Horses,” I had tasted Bruce’s tongue.” described a wild and fast romance.   When the story began you could feel the rush of new loves and lusts, but as the story continues Minot takes us down into the self loathing that the character feels.  When she speaks of being good in school but then losing all direction because she becomes centered on a boy or when she looks in a boy’s face and wants to know who he is but he gets angry.  All these parts of the story bring you down and down, spiraling into the person she eventually becomes.  She becomes the girl who “gets swept away” during sex, but then disappears when they look into her eyes. 

I think that the character has been damaged by so many men that emotionally she shuts off at the end of sex so that the men can’t reach her to hurt her.  She is so disconnected that the love she has been so desperately looking for in all these rendezvous wouldn’t be able to get through to her even if she found it.  What do you think the last line of the story means?  Why do you think “the girl they were fucking is not there anymore.”?

SSRJ #3: D. Walker

D. Walker’s “I am the Grass” made me feel sad for the man’s life that was full of so much pain at such a young age.  Being thrown into a war before even knowing who he is as a person and put under extremely stressful situations that I can’t even imagine being in.  I felt all the guilt and shame with him as he described his new life in the fake world of Plastic Surgery.  There are things I regret in my life, but nothing compares to what he must live with. I was extremely interested in how he pulled himself out of the self pity and moved his life forward.  Even becoming successful and finding some peace in helping others.  My uncles all served in the Vietnam War and not one of them came back the same.  They are all haunted by the war and one in particular was never able to pull himself out of self pity.

In this story Walker uses the setting of Vietnam to bring the reader with him from the beginning as a terrified young man doing awful things, to the end where the same man returns at an older age trying to somehow atone for the sins of his past.  Walker names the towns, mountains and roads where the young man performed deplorable acts of rape and murder. When the man returns he is instantly brought back to the feelings of rage and disgust at seeing the same places, smells, sights and sounds.  The man passes “Long Binh” where he must stop and see for himself that the military base he once called “Long Binh jail” was completely covered by long grass.  The words by Sandburg come back to him, “Shove them under and let me work – I am the grass; I cover all.”  I believe the man coming back to Vietnam to help children by repairing cleft palates hopes that his endeavor will be like the grass covering the ugliness of battle with the beauty of nature. 

I feel that Walker writes “The day before I am to leave Vietnam is the day of atonement” because the man has placed all his “atonement” on the surgery to fix Dinh’s hand.  It is very symbolic when the surgery to fix Dinh’s hand is a failure.  I feel the lesson learned by the man is that some things cannot be fixed.  Even though the grass now covers the battle site, it does not change what happened there.  What do you think the botched surgery represents in this story?

SSRJ #2: Straight

The fact that the main character in "Mines" is a female Youth Authority (YA) Corrections Officer was very intriguing to me.  I have always wondered what it would be like to be a Correctional Officer and how they can take themselves out of the prison role when they leave.  In this story, Straight takes you back and forth from Clarette's home life and her job at the YA.  This is exactly what I have always questioned, how does a Correctional Officer turn it off when they go home?  When Clarette is at the sink washing her hands and going through her change from YA Officer to mother it's seems to me that she is washing the filth of her job off so she can continue her day with her children.

Susan Straight uses symbolism to describe how these hardened criminals shave their heads to look tough when really they look naked as they were when they were born.  This deftly describes how Clarette feels about the wards.  They tattoo themselves and shave their heads so that everyone knows how hardened they are when really she looks at them and knows that this is someone's son.  Her husband Ray shaves their son Ray Jr.'s head without asking her and it really upsets Clarette.  He made her son's head look just like the boys inside YA.  Througt the story she is happy every time her son does something that lets her know he is nothing like the boys that are locked up.  When he does the dishes, the laundry or wants to play piano even though the other kids might tease him. 

The author's use of irony stood out for me in regards to Clarette's own hair.  She is required to keep it scraped back and in a bun.  While she is out during her "off" time a woman complains about the severity of her hair and this prompts her to tell the woman what she does for a living.  This woman forms a negative opinion of Clarette because her own son is locked up, but Clarette talks about how she is the one keeping the boy alive until he can go home.  Then at the end of the story a braid gets lose and gets pulled out by one of the boys that she just protected from a fight.  When even a hint of her feminity comes out in the YA environment, it is savagly ripped from her by the boys she is trying to protect.

The upright piano was something that Clarette wanted for her son.  Looking for this piano became a central point towards the end of the story with it being one of the last conversations with her husband and when the fight at the YA was over she went back and put her finger on the ad for the upright.  Do you think the piano represented something beautiful that she could provide in her everyday life with the money from working in such a terrible place?

SSRJ #1 Chopin

During the first run through of Chopin's The Story of an Hour I didn't really connect until I read "She did not hear the story as many women have".  At this point I smiled because I had a feeling I knew where the story was heading.  Even with the foreboding I felt myself get tight chested as something  was coming to her and she was waiting for it fearfully.  I felt as if I was walking in Louise's shoes with her.  The story took me through the lows and the highs just as a good story should.

Chopin obviously had a very firm grasp of the tumultuous nature of marriage and even though marriage in that time was considered more opressive due to the disadvantages for women, it does not take away from the constraints of marriage even in the face of love.  I believe Louise did love Brently, but this does not change the nature of marriage. Two people come together and make one life.  There is give and take and if one person feels completely carefree and able to do whatever they want then I will bet there is another person in that relationship completely oppressed. 

I absolutely love the description of what was going on outside the window.  The picture of Spring and a wonderful day just outside her current situation.  The trip down the stairs with the resolve of a new life and then how casually all of that ended with a husband walking in from work like he does everyday.  The shock of how seriously everything changed to a person with a fragile heart was too much.  For those of you looking to villianize Louise then the fact that now Brently is the one who is free should make this story appeal to everyone.  Just remember, life is far from fair.

Introduction

Hello Class,

I am a returning student who has been out of college for 16 years.  The return to school was prompted by the realization that although I have moved up quickly in my profession, I really hate working in a cubicle.  I would like to explore the nursing field or speech pathology.  Before I left Sierra College I was able to accumulate 49 units and since then have attended numerous work related training courses.

Reading was a passion before my children came along, but every now and then I can still find time to get wrapped up in a book.  One of my all time favorite books is: Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder.

Thank you for stopping by.