"As I lay dying"

I enjoyed reading this book. The way Faulkner allowed you to visualize each story through each character was very interesting. I feel sorry for Cash he suffers from a broken foot which anse tries to fix with cement (wow dont get that one). Cash may be the most sensible one in the novel because although he's handicapped he's still trying to help the family out by giving verbal advice. Now Jewel is really sentimental when it comes to helping out his family, giving up his closest prizes to help the family out such as his horse, caring for his mom because he is closest to her, but he does suffer from a dirty mouth. Every other word is a curse word. Now with Darl he seems like the most sane one in the book but towards the ending he burns down the

Gillespie barn which had his moms coffin in it and when jewel saves all the animals along with his mom out the barn, Darl is laying on the coffin under the tree like a sick baby wanting breast milk (weirdo)! Now he's the insane one in the book who ends up in the J building (crazy). Dewey Dell is a naive teenager who had a mom who wasn't too bright, which explains alot. Dewey is pregnant and doesn't know what to do but is lost and confused. Anse is a selfish man who allows his children to feel sorry for him because he's old, lazy and go as far as to conning his daughter into giving him her only 10 dollars. he steals from his incapable son cash who is suffering from an open wound and instead of taking him to see a doctor he chooses to be cheap. But when it comes to him having teeth he will take to get it. He walks up with this lady Ms. Bundren who I feel is too quick to be in the kids life but at the same time she could be a mother figure for Dewey Dell since she has no guidance. Now addie who is on her dying bed you get a sense of her although she doesn't talk. She seems very cold hearted and doesn't really care about life. She cheated on her husband and also had a baby by another man. (Whoa) Well other than that it took her family 7/8 days to finally get her to jefferson to bury her but they ended up giving her what she wanted. So although the book ended weird it all concludes well.

My Antonia

I enjoy reading this book. Jim is a really nice person who seems very different from most of the people in town, I'm not sure if it's because he had no choice to move their after his parents died, but I don't think that's the case because when he moved there, the kids their were around his age group. I don't like the fact that the town girls are looked at differently because they go dancing at the Black Hawk, but I do like the fact that Antonia chose to rebel against the Cutters after she was told she could no longer go. Antonia seems to be going through a lot after her father's suicide and all so that's why I think she liked the fact that she could go somewhere and dance and not think about life on the farm. In addition she's still young so why shouldn't she be able to have fun. The married man trying to kiss her on the porch was not her fault and she didn't lead him on because if she did want something to happen between them I think she would have allowed him to kiss her. This book is becoming more interesting for me to read now that more and more things keep happening. for instance jim finally making a move on antonia which I was happy for him to do, but wasn't surprised that antonia felt awkward about it. Antonia getting upset was stupid I felt because how could she not see it coming he tutored her for crying out loud and spent most of his time with her, but I love the fact that her and jim continued to be friends and she didn't let this incident mess up anything between them. I think jim feels a certain way now that him and his family have moved and him and antonia aren't able to communicate the way they use to. Well I will continue reading to see what will happen when jim is done with high school and what changes occur!

Life as a Slave

While reading the narrative of Washington I cried. Not because I was hurt on all the things he went through as a slave but because I sit back and think about life today and how so much has changed. We now have an African American leader when we never thought this was possible and African Americans are doing alot of positive things to help influence other young black kids. Now I can tell my daughter or son that they can be a president one day. This makes me feel really good. Washington's struggle has helped him become who he is today. He never thought that he would be able to tell his story until the north won the war and rid slavery he said the slaves rejoiced because this was a new day a new era and that's what it felt like when obama won. I feel that alot of people are on his case but don't think about the way the economy was left to deal with. Another thing I don't agree with is the fact that when we had white presidents we had to sit in school and watch what that president was saying as well as write a report on it. But now that obama's president these school are saying no we don't want it to intervene with our class time and I feel its because we now have a black leader on our side!

The Awakening

The "Awakening " is really awakening. This book is very interesting. It relates to everyday society and how people really are. This book was written in the 1800"s which means that not much has changed since today! Really. So I feel, a lot of people are like that. There are friends that know your married and would accompany you while your out with your secret lover. Adele shouldn't allow edna to feel like she's doing something okay. Edna being so depressed and a wife with kids should just do the right thing and let her husband go before she chooses to engage in sexual activities with another man; but then again a lot of people do it. Ok so lets talk about robert. Robert who is the Elder spends alot of time with edna on the shore talking, but not really talking about life with one another or progressing in this lust relationship they have. Robert is a son who came from royalty and is known on that Island to be the player type around town. I guess when your young and have plenty of money and your only interest is married women, you could really lure a Grown woman into playing with fire. When Edna is with Robert she feels young, happy and I guess just like a teenager that's rebelling. Its seems to be a thrill for her to cheat on her husband because she's now confident that someone young like Robert is actually interested in someone not so young as herself. Kate chopin explains her confidence by writing how she learns how to swim; which is something most of us learn when we're kids. She also says she starts painting as when she did in her childhood.

This lets me know that Edna jumped the gun to soon; meaning marriage. She spent her whole life with probably the first guy she meant and is experiencing new testosterone that she really enjoys and was awaken by the fact that their are guys like robert out there. Robert realizes that this is going to far and just like a player can remove himself from the equation because she's just the girl on the side. So now Robert leaves the Island but Edna doesn't seemed too upset about that because when she goes back to New Orleans she's this new confident, feeling herself alot type of woman. She begins rebelling against her husband. Not doing her regular duties, speaking up to Leonce. There's a change in her attitude which allows her husband to feel the need to talk to the family physician about it. Now this doctor prescribes a dose of adultery to leonce's attention. Setriously, why couldn't Leonce figure that out on his own. He's always working, doesn't pay attention to his wife they way she wants so what does he expect her to do. Adele is a woman who doesn't really carry herself like a lady is what it seems, so you know the saying, "You can judge a person by the company they keep." I like the fact that Leonce chose not to believe the doctor and went on a business trip with the intentions that when he gets back to Edna things will still be the same. Edna choosing to forget about everybody even her kids because she basically wanted to sheme. she started sleeping with the town seducer for God sakes, now this just sounds like an old ass woman craving for attention. Because after she had sex she didn't choose to pursue this Alcree man she just wanted somebody to please her because she couldn't have Robert at that moment. Easy is what i call it! So now Robert misses her, comes back but lets her know there can't be anything serious between them; so why did he go all the way to New Orleans to tell her that again, why didn't he just stay away. He claims he loves her so much but yet doesn't want to be with her. Robert just wants to have his cake and eat it to and Edna isn't any better, she loses herself in this man and allows him to just wheel her in whenever he wants.

Now I feel adele is a hypocrit because before she didn't mind Edna cheating on her husband and hanging out with Robert but now that she's feeling like she lost her friend to this man, she starts to remind Edna that she should basically go back to tending to her kids. Edna ends up feeling lonely because now there's no Robert, no leonce no kids and now her friend is being hypocritical and her physician is telling her to rethink her lovelife. Instead of her being a real woman and just getting a divorce and taking care of her kids, she chooses to commit suicide. She was probably just unhappy with herself and felt that she no longer needed to live because she always needed a man by her side as if she couldn't be a strong independent single mother. I feel as though if your married and not happy you should move forward and do it by yourself for awhile before you choose to jump into the sheets with somebody else.

Huckleberry Finn

I enjoyed reading the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck. I read this book in high school and enjoyed it just as much. I liked the fact that Huck grew to accept Tom sawyer minus the appearance. It took huck awhile to accept him as a person seeing as though he was use to looking at him as just a slave. Many people can relate to this book because not only was it about excepting somebody different, huck also struggled with things that kids struggle with today. His father gave him up and once he found out there was money involved he then wanted to be back in his sons life. so typical. Alot of kids have fathers that are alcoholics and probably do beat them but I don't know if they lock them in a cabin all day? maybe a house; but this book was really an adventure. It showed good and bad events. I didnt agree with the new judge giving pap legal rights but he thought he could change him, which they should have known: the only way to receive help is by taking the first step, which we all know what that is. At the end of the day although huck was kidnapped by his dad, he did learn alot more than his father which was learning how to read and write from the widow that cared for him. Huck and Tom both share something similar. Huck has an alcoholic for a father that beats on him and doesn't really care for the boy and Tom is a slave which is defined as property and the lady that owns him is looking to get rid of him. So I can see how these two young boys could teach one another a thing or two while experiencing life together.

Emily Dickenson

I liked reading emily dickenson ever since high school. I still feel the same way I did about her then that I feel now. When she writes she writes for herself, meaning that this is her expressing her thoughts and not caring what others think because she's not writing for other people to rate her. If people relate to her poems then thats up to them because thats really what I think she tries to do; she writes with the intentions that there's plenty of people who've had their days or moments when they felt like dying, felt lonely, felt like locking themselves away from society, so with that being said she's a very deep poet that has a great use of words to go along with her imagination.

"Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman

From reading the title you would think this poem is about him. Him referring to Walt Whitman’s life, up’s and downs, good and bad. But while reading this poem you see how it refers to everybody in the world; dead, alive, or just an ordinary person. He expresses his feelings deeply for the one’s he lost in the Civil war. He uses grass to symbolize all these good and bad situations. Grass can either be something that’s apart of mother nature which is good, or the grass that feeds on the bodies of the dead. As you read further Whitman seems kind of stumped. He states: “I wish I could translate the hints.” I guess saying that you can come across a lot of things but your inability to express what it means is hard and also natural. When Whitman talks about speech being the twin of his vision, I understand what that means. He’s saying that just like what he see’s he can feel which doesn’t allow room to comment. “I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I then become the wounded person.” He steps into the wounded man’s shoes because he uses his vision to see how that person is in pain which leaves no room for questions because he already sees it. He tends to say everything by saying nothing which makes you think there is another person, another side to him maybe. He has different ways of expressing himself, allowing you to believe that their’s multiple sides or personalities.