One Hundred Years of Solitude

When we discussed the labyrinth in class, I didn't even know what a labyrinth was. Until I started thinking of what to write my blog about, I wasn't even sure I knew how to connect One Hundred Years of Solitude to a labyrinth. Both are long, confusing and require your full attention. In a labyrinth, if you try to get through it as fast as you can without knowing where you're going you may end up either frustrated, lost or taking twice as long as if you would take your time. If you try to skim the book to finish a reading, you will miss introductions or deaths of characters or important plot elements. Just like a labyrinth, you'll end up confused, frustrated and needing to reread the story. Labyrinths appear very loopy, as if it's crossing its own path. This book loops through time and repeats character's actions and the same events happen over and over.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

When finishing The God of Small Things, we talked about the few occurances of incest. One Hundred Years of Solitude has way more incest and with many more characters. Does the book say where the story takes place? Is the incest acceptable because of the culture? It's not really considered wrong and there are no legal reprocussions of this. Also, I don't know if this would be considered some form of pedophilia, but Aureliano wanted to marry Remedios before she even hit puberty. He waited for her to grow up and ignored her older sisters. Granted, he never took advantage of her before they married (so no crime by our standards) but why would he even be romantically looking at a girl so young?
Death is such a huge part of this novel because it occurs so often. So many characters die, but it's also not a huge part because it's barely acknowledged. there are pages and pages of character's lives or parts of their lives but only a sentence or two about their death. There also isn't much about the people dealing with the death of loved ones. What significance is this? Is death not a topic of importance for these characters and in this town? Is Garcia Marquez making a statement about the importance of death in reality? Should death not be glorified because we should celebrate somone's life instead? Or perhaps is it just that the deaths aren't important to the story, but need to be mentioned in order to move forward with the plot?

The God of Small Things

In class we talked about racism and incest and whether Roy was critiquing such things or leaving a moral of the story to be "it's bad." I definitely think the book was trying to leave a message. It may be easy to say on paper that we know something is wrong but sometimes that is kind of fuzzy. Someone may think racism is wrong but don't realize things that they do are racist or that they are racist. They would never think their actions are wrong, but idea of hate is wrong. If racism or other forms of discrimination didn't still exist and wasn't still a problem, it wouldn't even be a factor in the plot or story. By showing how specific experiences effect the victim, readers may realize to be aware of their own actions. Like we said in class, putting a face to a wrong doing makes it relatable. There will also always be Baby Kochamma's in this world and showing her actions from someone else's or an outsider's perspective really shows how much good intentions (or seemingly good intentions) can truely destroy someone. There will always be manipulative people in the world, always be liars, always be someone dissaproving of something or someone in your life, always have someone trying to make you something you're not. Again, it's easy to say to treat others with respect and it's easy to say to stay out of others' business, but until you can see how your actions effect someone else, it's hard to realize you're doing wrong.

midterm analysis

Monica Steinbrecher
Paul Gleason
EN 303
8 October 2008
Throughout the course of this semester so far, I have completed six blog entries. Over the weeks, the entries have improved and also changed styles. All three stages of reading development have been touched on in at least one entry.
The first few weeks were very centered upon first and second stage. I try to really keep “I” out of as much writing as I can, but the entries that were “I” based were mostly asking questions. My entry on September 9th about the first section of Murakami was completely “I” format. I had never really encountered a book anywhere near this before and this blog entry basically expression my confusion throughout the book and a general dislike for it. While I think I am generally beyond such formats for my writing, with so much confusion I would never have been able to relate the information to other texts or social aspects. The entry that was completely in stage two was about Haroun and relating it to the Wizard of Oz. We did the comparisons in class and thinking of all the ways that the two texts were similar was not only really interesting but helped out my understanding a lot.
I’m not sure where some of my other entries fall. They aren’t really relating the text to other texts, nor are they relating them to social ideas. A few entries I focused on a specific idea or two and really went into detail about it/them, for example, the Murakami entry focusing on eating and drinking. These entries are improved from opinion and “I” based entries. However, they aren’t quite up to a level three stage.
The two most recent entries fall into the stage three category, especially the Indiana Jones entry. The Indiana Jones entry was about Willie’s obnoxious personality, but really how that related to Lucas’s view of women and how non-Americans would view her. This is probably my most sophisticated entry and an example to base future entries. The most recent entry about The God of Small Things is kind of in between a stage two and a stage three entry. I was able to relate terms from the handout to the novel. However, I was also able to back it up from the text and the presentation on the Caste system. For example, I found several different instances of subordinate positions throughout the text and among all the characters.
There are a few things I could do to improve my entries to keep them at a stage three entry. For one, keep in mind the entries I feel I did really well on and use them as a model for future reading. In the Indiana Jones entry I picked out something specific in the movie and discussed it in detail, but also found a way to bring in world notions to it (sexism). If I can continue to do so, I think my entries will be quickly improving. Talking about a specific notion or item in the text in detail is really important to find the significance of certain things. For example, the subordinate positions in Roy’s novel. A way to improve this entry would be to discuss subordinate positions of today in reality. For example, women in the radical Islamic nations. People still think that some countries are superior or inferior to others. People all over are embarrassed when they don’t think their lives or possessions live up to someone else’s.
Whenever I have to read something but don’t have to write about it (for other classes or for pleasure) I have a completely different mindset to reading. I’m completely all over the board with stages and reactions. Usually I’m pretty “I” centered, but occasionally something will strike me. I’m in three Women’s Studies classes right now and find that so much of the material overlaps. I also find myself relating the material in one class to situations and material in another class. Sometimes a certain notion will really get me to thinking about social issues or a contemporary problem in the media. Once I can relate whatever I’m reading about to something else I could really go with it. Unfortunately, unless I’m writing about the book or have some other assignment with it, I rarely bring other texts or outside issues to it.
Overall, my blog entries have taken many different angles and maintained a place in each stage. I think they have improved in the last few weeks, but there is always room for more improvement. I hope to accomplish a goal of keeping all my entries in the third level.

old entry 9/4/08

In class we discussed Haroun in relation to the Wizard of Oz, but didn'tdiscuss it much in detail. I found many similarities between the two. Thebiggest thing is definitely the two worlds in each. (Oz and Kansas and The SadCity and Gup/Chup cities). Haroun and Dorothy had to get into this unknown worldwith someone else. Dorothothy got to Oz by following the Yellow Brick Road,but really, with the help of the Good Witch of the North. Although Good Witchdidn't physically take her to the city, she showed her the way and watchedover her journey. Haroun was brought into Gup by The Water Genie andwouldn't have been able to without him. Haroun and Dorothy were both verycurious but skeptical of their journeys and the new worlds. The magicalcreatures in each story are another similarity. There were many in Haroun, forexample, the fish with many mouths or the Gardener. In the Wizard of Oz, therewere the flying monkeys in addition to thescarecrow, tin man and lion. Many small things added up to be quite a fewsimilarities between each of the magical stories and lands.

old entry 9/12/08

A Wild Sheep Chase started out more like unrelated anectdotes than a (loosely) chronological story. I think I might have liked that better, to be honest. I think there could still be some levels of the magical realism or surrealism. I'm having a hard time understanding the plot line and how the characters fit in together. Perhaps the hardest part for me is the lack of names. Every woman is simply "She." Who is the woman he tracked down for the letter and how on earth did he know it was about her? Was she mentioned in the letter? The narrator isn't even named, but the bartender was at least given "J." In Small groups, I discussed the Rat. We discussed how many things could be seen as normal or logical and wierd or surreal at the same time. The fact that the Rat was such a good friend, but up and left without saying goodbye to Boku and then after years writing him and addressing it "so how are things?" As if nothing had happened and no timehad passed. But at the same time, if it's a close enough friendship, time and distance shouldn't matter. It was also interesting that Rat stated how much he hates letter writing and he never knew what to say, yet his letter was pages long...but pages of rambling. I hope the story fits in together within the next section because I can't really make sense of it now. Perhaps it's also because I don't read fantasy or any kind of books like this.

The God of Small Things

In class, we talked about sub-altern, or a subordinate position. Subordinate positions are important and powerful issues all throughout this text. First off, Velutha is an Untouchable. He is subordinate to all of society, including government and religion (caste system). He is definitely inferior to his peers and not allowed in Touchables' homes. They were expected to cover their mouths when they talked and not allowed umbrellas, among many other disadvantages. Estha and Rahel are definitely in subordinate positions. For one, they are children of divorced parents. They were supposed to stay off to the side and not talk to anyone at Sophie Mol's funeral. Mammachi said her grandchildren suffered far greater than those the result of incest. "She meant having parents who were divorced. As though these were the only choices available to people: inbreeding or divorce" (59). They were expected to speak English around Sophie Mol and Margaret because they were English. Mammachi was embarrassed because their culture was definitely subordinate to the English. Chako told the twins they were part of a family of Anglophiles, "trapped outside their own culture" (51).