Post 12 - Theme of Me

                    I think if I had to give myself a theme, it would be "Do what makes you happy". I usually don't go out of my way to things I don't like and stick to things that I find enjoyable. I go to school because I (sometimes) enjoy it. I play games because I enjoy it. I worked somewhere that was fun to work at. When I'm confronted with a situation that would make me unhappy I try and make light of it. I find a way to get through bad situations in the best way possible and get back to what I like doing. I've been pretty much doing this all my life and I think it is one of the themes of my life.

Post 11 - Theme of the United States

                      I think that if I had to give the United States a theme, it would be something along the lines of "Freedom through Fighting". When the country was merely a colony of England, men and women alike came to the new world in hopes of prosperity. Some were wealthy and owned acres of land. Some were of very low class, these people who had no prospects in England came to the new world as indentured servants. They traded away part of their lives hoping to make something of themselves in the colonies. What they found was anything but easy, they fought for years in lands of disease, hostile natives, and poor living conditions. Though they freely chose this life to better their own, they didn't know of the near slave-like conditions and years of work and fighting they would be put through all in the name of freedom.

                     Fast-forward about a century, and the 13 colonies are at war with England. Feeling they had been oppressed and taken advantage of for many years, the colonies declared their independence. What ensued was an 8-year war and the deaths of over 200,000 people. The United States fought long and hard for its freedom as a country, and in the end, we won it and earned it. 

                    Another fight for freedom arose about 80 years later. The Civil War was mainly fought over that act of slavery. An act that was cruel and inhumane, but did help America in its early days build as a prosperous colony and later a country. Though the slave trade had ended in the early 1800's the ownership of slaves continued on for decades until people decided the practice needed to be ended and that those people bound in slavery should have their freedom. The war cost the lives of over 600,000 Americans, but lead to the freedom of 3,900,000 slaves.

                 Just those 3 points show that the United States is all about Freedom, but it does have a cost. Many people have had to fight, some through hard conditions and some giving their own lives. In the end, we are of the freest countries out there and that freedom was not just given to us, fighting for that freedom was required.

Post 10 - Other's Symbols

                The first symbol I related to from one of my classmates is Gary's. He talks about how his beard to him is a symbol of "freedom of choice" and the he could have one for twenty years of his life. I grew mine not for his reasons, but just the fact that I wanted to. I agree with his last statement that "I suppose for most who wear one self expression plays a large role." It did for me, I wanted something my own and that's what it is for me. The second symbol I chose is Brandi's. Her's was a ring given to her by her mother. When I was younger my grandmother (Ninny) gave me a silver skull ring that I always had somewhere in my room of on my person. Brandi said "I hate pink...but it was from her" and that how I felt about the skull. I was never into that kind of imagery but I didn't complain because it was from Ninny. about 10-15 years later, she was diagnosed with dementia and died in 2014. I lost that ring sometime before she died, but wish I could find it to this day.

Post 9 - My Symbol

                 Something that I always carry with me is something that probably everyone else also carries; my wallet. It's just a basic, crappy Velcro wallet that's almost falling apart, but what makes it special for me is the Pittsburgh Steelers logo on it. When I lived in Pittsburgh for the first nine years of my life, I never had an interest in football, that pretty much all changed when I moved to Florida. I fell in line with tradition and became a Steelers fan in about 2004. In 9th grade, I was in P.E. and the kid next to me knew I was a fan of the Steelers, and he offered to sell me a wallet with the logo on it for $5. Of course I took him up on the offer, and now, about 10 years later I still have it. Every time I take it out it reminds me of not only the team that I love, but my family and where I'm originally from.

Now for the logo itself, it looks like this(for the uninitiated). It was originally the logo used by the company U.S. Steel, but looked a tad different. In 1962, the Steelers adopted the logo as their team logo. That season the team had their best season in history up to that point, that only cemented the logo as there's from some superstition. The colors of the diamonds were later given some meaning, representing the materials used to produce steel: yellow for coal, orange/red for iron, and blue for scrap steel.

Post 8 - Learning from Others

                   After reading some of our classes blogs, I learned more about the plot of Packer's story that I originally posted about. In Benjamin's post: "This[The setting of the story] is important because Dina is not from Tokyo, and generally neither is the audience." I never thought of the setting being used to not only confuse the characters, but also us as readers. The author used terms that most of us would not know and without the footnotes on the page, we would be as misplaced as Dina. From Jennifer's post, I discovered that the setting was set on multiple levels. Dina moved from a big city, Baltimore, to the small country of Japan. Not only that, but she takes up residence in a tiny flat that is also crowed by her roommates. "The small apartment offers no amenities other than space to inhabit, same as Japan." All in all I feel my thoughts on the plot of "Geese" was greatly expanded by the ideas of my colleagues. 


Jennifer's Blog
The Post

Benjamin's Blog
The Post

Post 7 - Importance of Setting in "Geese".

                 Most of the time, setting in a book or story has meaning. Sometimes the setting and meaning is subtle and not really a huge part of the overall story. Other times, like in "Geese", it is a larger part of the story as a whole. The setting Packer choose for the story was outside of Tokyo, Japan. It's an important location because it helps surmise the journey of the characters. Historically, Japan used Kamikaze pilots in World War 2. The soldier's planes were "allotted just enough fuel for it's one way trip."(204) Like those pilots, our main character left home with only enough money to get to Japan and back. She sold her return plane ticket and used all her money. She made it to her destination only to find out it wasn't what she hoped it would be. There, her and her flatmates crashed and self-destructed.

Post 6 - Author's Life compared to Doc1 story.

                  An author's life can have great impact on how and what they write. In “A Secret Sorrow” Faye is conflicted by her past and her inability to reconcile and resolve said past to move onto her future. Karen Van Der Zee (the author) was in a way trying to get over her past. She had a dream to travel but was stuck in Holland. “I also always wanted to travel. Holland is very flat and I wanted to see mountains and coconut palms and tropical beaches and deserts.” She wanted to see exotic places but first she had to let go of her old life. When she met her husband, it gave her the motivation to leave her home and explore the world around her. Faye finally let go of her past with the help of her lover and future husband Kai. Together they moved from her past and went on to have children, something that was unknown and exotic to Faye.

Post 5 - My Story from an Event

                    I believe I have an event that I could make into a story about me. It's not one singular event but spread out though my life. Since I was nine, I have been moving quite a bit. I am originally from Pittsburgh, but I have lived in eight different states in my life. Some areas I lived in for very short instances but four of them have been a majority of my life. I spent my first nine years in Pennsylvania, and my next nine in Florida. I lived in South Carolina for three years and now reside here, in Georgia. I have experienced the cultures and differences from the East and West coasts, from the North and the South. In Florida alone I have seen the change in people from the south of the state to the panhandle. Living in certain areas lead to my family having good and bad changes to us economically. We've experienced times where money was expendable and didn't bat an eye buying something new or otherwise unneeded, and times where money wasn't really seen, barley living paycheck to paycheck sometimes. Travelling a lot is and was hard, but it leads to many life lessons and experiences that some would otherwise not learn or see. I'm thankful for those lessons and I believe this part of my life could be a story that others could learn from.

Post 4 - Faulkner's Plot

                       The plot for A Rose for Emily is sometimes a challenge to recognize. Faulkner doesn't follow a strict chronological order of events; starting with the death of Emily. "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral" is the opening line of the story. The end of the story is the time after her death and the town folks finding the skeleton in her bed. The outside source I found for this story says: "The nonlinear plot structure of A Rose for Emily gives life to the story and creates a different way of comprehending the narrative." Faulkner's way of engaging the story's plot is very different from stories I've read before. It sets up an interesting way to view someone's life that you would never think to do before.