English 372: Blog Post 4: Hard Times, TEAM WHY

For this blog post I would like to concentrate on the ending of the book Hard Times by Charles Dickens. I thought that the ending was a decent one and did tie together loose strings, however my only dislike towards it was that it felt cliché. The reason I say this is because each main character for the most part ends the novel in a depressant or somber state. The one character ending that made me the maddest was Bounderby; I thought for his major role that he needed a more exciting and meaningful ending than just dying in the streets of Coketown 5 years after firing Mrs. Sparsit. With all of this being said I would edit the ending to make for a more exciting and fulfilling one. The ending in which I would create would for Stephen Blackpool to come back in revenge for being screwed over; and in his comeback finds a flaw that Bounderby has in his factory and bank. In which he then black mails him and makes a deal for him to sell over most of his wealth. The reason I think this would make for a better ending is because the small man on the totem pole would end up on top. Even though Tom was the one who had set up the whole sitting outside the bank ordeal, it would create a plot twist because it could be included that Blackpool had set him up to somehow use the money “stolen” for illegal purposes. This type of plot twist which has characters being screwed over, getting back at the wrong people and losing it all makes for a much more intriguing ending. The next part of the ending that I would alter would to have Louisa not even the get the satisfaction of being loved and apart of Sissys’ family. The reason I chose this new ending is because no remorse should be felt towards her. She chose to marry the rich man who was double her age, but as we can see wasn’t happy. Throughout the whole novel she did nothing but cause more drama between herself and the male species. She put herself in the situation she ended up in. This is why I firmly believe that she should have grown old by herself. This causes for a character ending with extreme circumstances because of their decisions. In adding these two different endings which are extreme and can be taken in many different ways will create for a better ending. This will allow for the reader/audience to have to really think on why the author ended the novel this way. Creates a more analytical ending.    

English 372: Post #2, Poe, Tell Tale Heart. TEAM WHY

Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most known and historic pieces of writing. It has been being taught for as long as I have been in school and for good reasoning. It has so many aspects to dissect that even in today’s literature classes this piece of work could be analyzed for a solid week. My thoughts however, when reading in college compared to middle and high school has changed immensely. My thoughts on it reading it for the third time were much more analytical and scholarly. I finally noticed all of the gothic attributes that it contains. The first characteristic that I noticed was the disturbing images that pop into your mind when reading it. For example the line “because Death, in approaching him,” really stood because I never had realized the severity of the passion to murder the old man. Yet, this had me making the relation towards the gothic consistency of focusing on death. The whole main plot of this writing is night after night waiting for the right time to execute the murder of another living being. With this being said the setting of this story is taking place entirely inside of a house, which also fits the characteristic of isolated settings. However, the only suggestion I could have to make the setting a more proper one for the situation would be to have day time stalking events in an old run down town where the sun never shined. I believe in adding eerie scenery would add just a bit more suspenseful drama. Other than that I believe the description of the whole story was done very well. Moving towards the end, I was shocked at the end when the noise he had been hearing was the beating of the old man’s heart under the floor boards. This stood out so much because it was an un-natural occurrence compared to most stories you’ll ever read. That is what it makes this so unique. It also once again makes the story follow almost to a tee the characteristics of gothic writing. When I was all said and done reading it, I couldn’t believe that the narrator had spilled the beans to the policeman. After analyzing this for quite some time I realized that even though in literary terms it was on point for following a certain theme, it also fits a moral theme. Guilt. Guilt will get the best of nearly all human beings and this just another story of how it’s true. Poe I believe un-intentionally wanted to portray, but it happened that way. He finished his story in a way not many authors had done before and in the process ended up sending a moral message. This is however, just my opinion on the ending. I believe that in thinking in the un-like gothic literary terms that other pieces of writing like this can un-cover other messages.      

English 372: Frankenstein Blog Post: Team WHY

In class we have been reading the book Frankenstein, and the three main words that stand out to me when thinking about how to describe this novel are as followed: science, human and emotions. I chose these three words because they each describe key components and themes that occur throughout. Starting off with the word science; science is the whole reason why this post is even relevant. Dr. Frankenstein along with his pride created a specimen that even he could not believe. The development of science and modern technology had just reached a new level. Another component to this word that is crucial is that Dr. Frankenstein starts to believe he did more than just science; he played god and created a harmful creature. I don’t blame Dr. Frankenstein one bit, anybody with the brain power he has would test the limits to see how far they could go as well. He just happened to be the one in taking science to a level no eyes could believe that they are seeing. Next, the word human is another vital theme. The debate continues on whether or not the beast of creation is human or not. It is no simple matter to debate over because the argument can be easily swayed off of the fact that Frankenstein was made artificially. Yet, what artificial creation has the thoughts, feelings and most of all emotions of a human. This fact alone is what makes the debate get heated. Frankenstein after watching the family for some time starts to build a bond with them and realizes that if he had somebody with him that he could be happy in a world he is not wanted in. Now if anybody can name another artificially created creature with the human attributes that Frankenstein possess’ I would like to be notified? However, in all honest opinion I do believe that Frankenstein is non-human because it never states he has the ability to reproduce and most of all that he does not have a soul. All humans have souls correct? The last word I would like to bring up for this discussion is emotions. This book throughout has so many emotions coming from not only main characters, but side as well. Dr. Frankenstein has an emotional roller coaster in his head going from self-pride of his creation to fear of what he has created to lastly guilt for what the beast has done. Then you have the beast himself who starts gaining feelings and emotions towards human objects, people and scenery. It’s crazy how three words can describe such a famous piece of writing, shout out goes to the author for staying consistent with the themes and novel objectives.   

English 325: Blog Post #2

Between shades of grey in one word is an INSANE book. Even though I have only read half of the book it was one that was hard to put down. The plot has started to reach its peak, I still don’t know where it’s going to go, but I know for a fact it’s going to be an interesting one. I couldn’t imagine having my family taken away with only 20 minutes to pack. As the novel continues I can only imagine the pain that this family is enduring. Losing their dad and yet still having the will power to endure hardships and stay together as a family. The characters have been dealing with the cards they have been dealt. Analyzing Lisa, Jonas and their mother can only be put into one word “Troopers.” They have been starved, treated like nothing, but yet still do what it takes to stay together and survive. It’s almost hard to say that they have developed as characters in this novel because they have throughout been nothing but in survival mode. A few themes that I have noticed so far that relate to other texts is that Lisa believes in leaving drawings/clues for her father that he will find them. This relates directly to the film The Mummy Returns where the boy that was taken captive leaves clues for his parents to know where is headed next. Also another item that I noticed was that at the beginning of each chapter the first few words are in all caps, something that I have rarely seen in books. I have the up most respect for the mother because in the heat of the situation that they are in she still is building relationships with everybody in order for her family to survive. She even gives away her husband’s watch for Jonas to stay with the group. The community that has been built between the main and sub characters is something you don’t see in many novels. Giving food to each other, even though some are not grateful. . . Mr. Stalas. Continuing with the community bond, when everybody refused to sign the contract to work for 25 years, it made a statement to the NKVD. They had no power because since none of them agreed and that they were supplying their manual work force they couldn’t afflict any damage due to their needs of them. Even though the soviets tried to flex their muscles and scare them, all of them stayed strong and withstood it. I believe that this is a key component for the book because in order for them to survive they all must stay together. At one point Lisa believes that Andrius has betrayed them and started working for the soviets. However, little did she know that he was simply doing it for him and his mother’s welfare; he even still continues to help them and supply food that none of them have access too. It’s hard to comprehend how a son will sacrifice a sell out because his mother has to be pimped out to the enemy in order to survive. He has the willpower that most men don’t, if it were me I would be dead because I would have killed anybody trying to touch my mother without her consent. Yet, this is such a different circumstance and nobody can have an opinion unless they lived it. Let’s just hope it was worth it by the end of the book.   

Blog Post 1: Eleanor and Park

After finishing the novel of Eleanor and Park I noticed that it portrayed a lot of good YA literature themes such as the following:

Teen love, family issues, bullying, gender/cultural conflicts along with many others. This may sound cliché, but in order for a book to be considered a successful YA book it must contain a good portion of these themes. I was really impressed with how the author incorporated character development in this novel because it was done like no other book I had read. In most YA literature when the teens are falling for each other it takes no time for each of them to say those three little words. . . “I love you.” However, in this book we had the case where Eleanor who wouldn't confess her to love Park as he had done for her, but as the book continues we get to see the development in Eleanor’s self-worth and confidence. The post card that contained three words to Park has been an implication of her expressing her love. This character development then relates very well with the themes of the novel because it exploits the characters personalities. Eleanor’s family issues can make the argument as to why her self-confidence is low. Cultural conflict such as needing to be “skinny, wear new clothes, etc” can be the argument as to why the kids who don’t fit this persona are bullied. These themes overall did a great job in portraying teen life. The only main critique I could give on this book is that I felt the family issues were too cliché for each party. We have all seen the poor guy or girl end up with the wealthy significant other. I would have been more intrigued if Eleanor had come from a more wealthy family such as Park had, this could have made for a new type of YA literature theme and created different options for the book to have gone. This being said I just think this book fell too much into the gender stereotype of the poor girl getting the wealthy guy; this theme occurs in the movies Cinderella, Sixteen Candles, Maid in Manhattan along with many others. Other than this critique I believe that this book was very well done and great read. This text is clearly positioning towards adolescents because it is including every day issues that teens endure. This makes for a teen to be keen into reading this book because they can relate to it. Adolescence is not an easy time in life for people; you endure lots of changes and start facing day to day issues that can cause immense pain. This text is portraying just that, it is showing how social status, looks, athletic skill and other factors can have a huge impact on your teen years. This appeals to teens because everything that they are reading is what they are living. It is something they can relate too and even has the possibilities of helping them cope with their problems or change their behaviors (positively or negatively). There is so much good that comes out of teens reading these types of YA literature which is why I would give this novel a solid B+/A- grade. It shows the actual real life problems, situations and day to day issues that teens endure and is an easy text to connect with.   

English 372: Blog #1 TEAM WHY

Blog Manifesto:
1.) Joshua Zaborowski, Savanah Atabelo TEAM WHY


We have decided to name our blog group TEAM WHY because we don't know why we decided to name it that. Our blog's are going to be very voice and opinion based, they will be straight to the point and will contain no beating around the bush. Our main topics we will be concerning will be the overall topics discussed in class. The reason we decided this is because we want to create new insights for the whole class, that may further their understanding of the topic at hand. This however is not limiting ourselves to exploring new and different ideas. Not everybody may like our opinions, but it will a constructive part of the learning environment and are excited to get started.