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India Jones

Prof. Lucas

English 231.01

02 December 2014

Critical Reflection

I chose to make A Rose for Emily into A Christmas Carol because in the film Emily seems sort of like a Scrooge. She doesn’t show much emotion and after her father passes away she rarely even comes out of the house. I kept everything relatively the same in relevance to the Ghost of Christmas past; I just left out Emily wrestling the ghost. With Emily and the Ghost of Christmas present, I chose to keep everything the same because it was not much to change about scrooges visit in the story. The future is where I began to make the most alterations to the story. In A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Christmas Yet To Come took Scrooge to his own gravesite and that’s when I realized that I couldn’t kill off Emily like Dickens did Scrooge. Since Emily’s father was already killed off earlier in the story I wanted to keep her alive. So when Emily was taken to the funeral, I decided to make the plot twist her father, but it wasn’t the dad she knew all her life. She then found out about her father’s past life that she had never heard about.

I chose A Christmas Carol because Christmas is approaching and A Christmas Carol is one of the most popular movies/book for Christmas time. With the different ghost in A Christmas Carol, I was able to break the story off into sections like Faulkner did A Rose for Emily. Emily as a character good learn to be more happy about life if she was really taken back or to her future to see have fortunate she really is. By combining these two stories I hope the reader sees my vision between them. Emily could use more emotion to express what she’s feeling in Faulkner’s story as in Dickens’ story Scrooge learns to show more emotion and not to be so down all the time by seeing his past, present, and future.

India Jones

Prof. Lucas

English 231.01

02 December 2014

A Christmas Carol for Emily

I

It had been only one month since Emily’s father had passed and no stranger had entered her house since then. But tonight was different; it was the night of the annual Grierson Christmas cocktail party. The day came and went and before you knew it, it was time for the cocktail party. After all, it was the first night since Mr. Grierson had passed that guest other than close relatives had been welcomed inside the Grierson household and it seemed like everyone felt entitled to ask Emily how she was doing or if she needed anything (as if the only thing she wanted she could get back) every time they walked by her. After about 50 questions, Emily wanted to forget all about this night and so she began to drink more and more Bourbon until she had to be put in bed by Homer. About an hour later, Emily was awakened by a ghost of herself, which called itself the Ghost of Christmas Past. At first Emily was frightened, like anyone else would be, but the ghost made Emily feel comfortable in a few short minutes and explained that she was there to make Emily get back in touch with her feelings. When Emily agreed to let the ghost take her back to her past, the first place they visited was the night of the first Grierson Christmas cocktail party. Emily was 16 years old and she was so happy to see all of her friends and family. Emily remembers it being one of the best nights of her life; she had so much fun gossiping and laughing with her best friends. The special night made Christmas one of Emily’s favorite holidays because she couldn’t wait to look forward to the cocktail party every year. The Ghost of Christmas Past feels like she has done her job and made Emily realize how much fun she could be having at her party tonight and that her dad would want her to have a great night carrying on a tradition that he started.  The Ghost of Christmas Past took Emily back to her house to let her think about what all she had seen.

II

Then the Ghost of Christmas Present arrives. Surprisingly, Emily isn’t frightened this time when this ghost arrives. By now Emily already expects to be taken on another journey; so the Ghost of Christmas Present takes her a few blocks away from the Grierson neighborhood to show her what festivities everyone else is doing while she is passed out drunk in her bedroom. On their trip the ghost takes her to the Williams household. The Williams, a mother, an older son, and a younger daughter, are hanging Christmas decorations in memory of the father who was recently killed in a car accident. They didn’t have much money to get many extra decorations, but they were genuinely happy just to be together in each other’s company enjoying the holidays. After the Williams finished hanging the decorations they went inside their house to have a family dinner. Because they didn’t have much money, their dinner was a small chicken with a small side of mashed potatoes to share amongst each other. The younger daughter was still hungry after her first plate because it was their first meal all day, but there simply just wasn’t anymore left over after everyone got their plates, so Ms. Williams gives her daughter the rest of her plate. This family makes Emily realize that she doesn’t have to be so upset when people are asking and willing to help her even though she has everything. She realizes that there are less fortunate families that would love all the help Emily has been offered but are unable to receive it at the moment. Feeling content that she has done her done job, the Ghost of Christmas Present leaves Emily to think about how fortunate and blessed she is.

III

Before you knew it, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come has arrived to see Emily. This ghost returns Emily back to her neighborhood, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city, but they don’t go to Emily’s house. Instead, they go to the end of her block to the Smith’s residence. The Smith’s owned the majority of the car dealerships in the state. So they were one of the wealthier families in the neighborhood. As Mr. Williams’ funeral approaches, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come takes Emily into the Smith’s home to show her how sick they were being about the family. They were making rude comments about Mr. Williams’ family like, “It’s a surprise they can even afford a funeral service” and “It’s a wonder if anyone will show up anyway.” The son of the Smith’s said he would only go if they served lunch and the daughter said she didn’t want lunch or wear black gloves so there was no reason at all for her to go. Next, the ghost takes Emily to her house and shows her, her personal future. Emily sees that she will be alone at the age of 92 when she passes away. Emily couldn’t resist not asking the ghost where Homer is. The ghost tells Emily that she had killed him 50 years ago and she becomes so lonely that she rarely leaves her house.

IV

Emily is afraid of letting her father down and being alone for the last 50 years of her life. So she tells herself that she is going to be more loving and starting helping out other families in need. She thinks if she becomes nicer and more understanding, more people will want to be around her for her and she’ll make more friends.  She goes wake up the next day hung over and thanks Homer for taking care of her the previous night and for keeping the cocktail party guest entertained. Emily tells Homer that for Christmas she wants to buy food and toys for the less fortunate families and make sure that they don’t have anything to worry about this holiday season. Homer agrees and they take off into the city to buy supplies. Emily seems like a totally different person today and Homer asks what has gotten into her, and she just replies by saying, “I just want everyone to have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”

India Jones

ENG 231.01

Professor Lucas

23 October 2014

Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat

Hills Like White Elephants

Both of these stories have an indirect dialogue about them. In both, you can sense that the characters are talking about abortion but neither of the narrators says that directly. While the context may be somewhat similar in Russell Banks’ “Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat” and Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, they are both different also.

Banks’ story tells about a man and a woman who lives in a trailer park and to me seems like their relationship is one-sided and controlled very much by the female. Since the man is black I think that the white woman feels that she thinks she knows what’s best when it comes to their relationship issues; she did not consult the man about her final decision, which led me to this conclusion. One day the couple decided to go to the lake near the trailer park. While in the boat, the woman began to tan and tries to lure the man by her looks. After being in the lake for a minute, they then start to talk about what’s going on in their relationship. The woman says, “I’m already putting on weight” (64) which to the readers indicate that she is pregnant, then she goes on to tell the man that she told her mother about their situation. The woman tells the man that she told her mother that she loves him very much, but I don’t think it is true. If she really loved him then she would have taken into consideration his view on things instead of just going about things on just what her and her mother want to do. While still talking to the man she mentions that her mother gets worried about her because she’s had “some close calls” (65). Of course the man questions the close calls and she says, “Oh, you know. Depression” (65). Soon after that, she tells the man that she has already scheduled the appointment and her mother is going with her that afternoon. This expresses to the reader that she is getting the abortion and she didn’t consult with the man about anything. When the man and the woman headed back to shore he said, “I wish I could just leave you here” (66). They rowed back near her trailer and the woman went on with her mother to have her abortion while the man went his separate way to begin his life without her.

Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” tells the story of a man and his girlfriend at a train station drinking and chatting while waiting on their train to Madrid to arrive. While drinking their beers, the girl announces that the hills close by look like white elephants to her. The American man and the girl, who he calls Jig, order more drinks and he mentions that he wants her to have an operation. I think most readers would see this operation as an abortion. He tries to tell Jig that the operation “is not really an operation at all” (417), trying to make it seem not as bad. Jig starts to worry about what might happen after the operation and the man reaffirms her that everything will be just fine like before the operation. The man lets Jig know that he doesn’t want to force her into having the operation if it isn’t something she really wants to do, but he still thinks that it is the best choice for their relationship. The girl tells the man, “I don’t care about me” (418). As long as he still loves her and as long as they will be able to live happily afterwards she says, “I’ll do it and then everything will be fine (418). The bartender hands them each another drink and lets them know that their train will be arriving soon. Before they left the man asked her, “Do you feel better?” (419) She responded, “I feel fine, there’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.” (419)

In both stories the characters try to encourage his or her partner to make a big decision. Abortion. Each story has a significant other who is trying to reassure the other that everything will be fine after the procedure. Both authors don’t give names in their stories. Hemingway only gives a nickname to one character. Each author also tells their story through conversation-like writing and there is not a lot of dialogue tags. Banks’ and Hemingway both tell their stories without telling them. Nothing they wrote in these stories were direct. They left things unsaid for the reader to figure out and this makes these stories unique to me. Everything just isn’t plain black and white; there are some grey areas for the reader. The main topic in both stories are heavy to most people, but for the topic to never be directly mentioned in either story and it still make sense to readers are what make these two authors as fascinating as they are.

Works Cited

Banks, Russell. “Black Man and White Woman in Dark Green Rowboat.” The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charles. Compact 9^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 62-67. Print.

Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charles. Compact 9^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 416-19. Print.

There’s not really much to tell about Joshua Bennett himself because he mostly just performed his poems, but what I did get from his personal life is that he was raised in Yonkers, New York. He went to an elite private school that took him a train and two buses to get there every morning. Joshua has a younger brother name Levis who has autism. He said that he motivates him so much, and he has an aunt, names Tamara, who is death. Because his family has disabilities it has taught him to look at life differently. His mom taught him that it’s not what people say, it’s what you know. Joshua always wants to make the world a better place for his family. After Joshua had read all his poetry, there was a Q&A segment. One brave young girl stood up and asked him, “How do you remember all the words to your poems?” There were a few chuckles in the crows, but I personally thought it was a great question because I honestly had wondered that same question myself during his performance. Before Joshua answered the question he told her that it was a very good question to ask which I’m sure made her feel good about herself. He said that he practices a lot; he practices in the shower and he practices while he eats breakfast. He said “practice makes perfect.” He also said, “everyone has complicated lives.”

India Jones

Prof. Lucas

English 231

05 September 2014

Interview with George Saunders

In the interview George Saunders talked about how he grew up in Chicago and how was he talked fast because he was from Chicago and how he figured if he wanted to meet girls he should slow his accent down, but that didn’t work. Then he moved on to how he gave a speech at the 2013 graduation of Syracuse University about kindness. After Mr. Saunders explained his speech the interviewer asked him how does he write his novels. He said anyone can’t just decide that they are going to write a novel and write one. Mr. Saunders said that you have to be moved to write a novel. He used a wedding as an example. He said that you just cant one day decide that you are going to get married, you have to be in love and be moved to get married. A little later on, Mr. Saunders began to talk about how a story he write came from dream. He said he dreamt about a girl that he dated came up to him and told him that she had a baby and he whenever he would try to congratulate her, she would interrupt him and tell him not to talk. The girl kept telling him that her baby was smart. The baby came crawling out to him and it began to talk then he thought to himself, wow, that is a smart baby. He said the baby looked no older than 4 months old. When Mr. Saunders saw behind the baby’s head he saw a zipper and then it became clear to him that the baby was wearing a mask. He wanted to tell the girl that the baby wasn’t really talking and wearing a mask but he didn’t. Mr. George told a funny story about how he got sick for a year. He was waiting for the mailman to come through and while he was waiting at the river he decided to have a few drinks and to take a swim. Well after he got in the river he realized that there were monkeys pooping in the river. A few days later he got really sick and found out that he had gotten this really bad sickness from the monkeys poop. He held on to that sickness for an entire year.

The Cloak

In Marajane Satrapi’s “The Veil,” the main concepts discussed are, the veil, feminism, and how timid Satrapi and her family are after the new law. In the first two boxes of the comic-like strip, Satrapi and her classmates look quite unhappy. We later find out that they are unhappy because it became obligatory to wear the veil to school. The children didn’t like to wear the veils, mainly because they didn’t understand why they had to. I think the veil takes away their freedom to express themselves. Along with the veil, their leader took out bilingual schools and made the boy and girls go to different schools. If they didn’t follow the new laws then they would be punished. Saddam Hussein, their leader, thought all the things he took out were a sign of capitalism.

In the streets there were demonstrations for and against the veils. Satrapi’s mother was against the veils and she decided to take her opinion to the streets too. A German journalist snapped a picture of her and it was published in all the European newspapers. Satrapi was proud of her mother for standing up for what she believes in. But her mother was so sacred that she died her hair and wore dark glasses everywhere for a while. Satrapi said she didn’t know what to think of the veil because she was very religious, but her family was avant-garde and modern.

When Satrapi was six years old, she was sure that she was going to be the last prophet. She wanted to be a prophet because their house maid did not eat with them, because her father had a Cadillac, and because her grandmother’s knees always ached. Satrapi had a holy book with rules she wanted to have when she became prophet. No one but her grandmother knew about her holy book. Every night before bed she had a conversation with God. I think feminism is a big part of this story.

At school one day, the teachers asks Satrapi what she wants to be when she grows up and she answers truthfully by saying she wants to be a prophet. The teacher was very concerned about her reply so she called her parents in for a meeting. These kids are only 10 years old, even if they are serious or not, I don’t think at this age it is serious enough for the teacher to call the child’s parents in for a meeting. In the meeting the teacher tells the parents that their child is disturbed because she wants to become a prophet. Her parents of course don’t see anything wrong with that. While leaving the meeting Satrapi’s father asks her again what she wants to be when she grows up and in the comic-like strip, you can see that she is thinking, “a prophet,” but she tells her father that she wants to be a doctor. This surprises me that she doesn’t even feel comfortable enough to tell her parents how she really feels. A child of that age should be able to tell her parents everything without worrying that they’ll be judged or what their parents might do. Later that night when she talked to God he said he thought that she wanted to be a prophet. Satrapi said she does, but her parents mustn’t know.

In the last box of the short story, Satrapi says,

“I wanted to be justice,

love and the wrath of God

all in one.” (pg. 794)

This is the biggest scene of the story to me because it shows what all she wants to be. I think she just wants everything around her to be simple and for everyone to be happy.

Work Cited

Marjane Satrapi. “The Veil.” The Story and Its Writer. Compact 9^th ed. Ed. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 794. Print.