American Literature

I thought that taking this class would be "easy" for me because I liked to read, but it was so much more than that. It is really hard to understand some of the reading in this class and you have to read some stories or poems a few times to get the full meaning behind them. 
Once you get that meaning though the story takes on a life of its own and sometimes you get a glimpse into the authors mind and you get an idea of what they have seen in life. 
Was this class easy? Not necessarily, but it was worth it, and I do recommend it to anyone who wants to broaden their minds and step out of reading just for fun but reading to learn. 
I can't say that I loved every single story, but I did get something out of every single story. 

Papa

This poem was by far one of my favorites, I loved reading the other students posts and what it meant to them. I was surprised to see how many students took a positive away from this poem and I had to read it quite a few times before I could get what they were seeing. 
For me I saw something very violent, growing up with an alcoholic father I could see in my mind how it used to be at home and it was very similar to this poem, it would always start out innocent but then all of a sudden something would cause him to be angry and things would go crashing down around me as my mom looked on and did nothing. 
As I read other students posts though I did go back and read it over and over again and I started to see how this was just a boy who loved his father and wanted to hold onto him tightly because he missed him. It's interesting when you read poems like this because depending on the person's background they take away something completely different, it's interesting how our minds are wired so differently. 

Who's Greater than Gatsby?

This is another one of my favorite stories, I watched the movie many years ago the one with Robert Redford, I have never seen the one with Leo, but the roaring 20s were a fascinating era and this epitomizes the glitz and glam of it all. 
It's a tragic story however, full of lies and betrayal, but at the core of it there is just a man, Jay Gatsby who falls in love with a girl named Daisy many years ago, and decides to go away and make himself rich to fit in with the Buchanans. 
Jay Gatsby is the hero in this story, and when Nick Carroway says he is worth more than the lot of them, he is right, Jay may not have gotten rich in a totally legal way but in his heart he always just loved Daisy, and in the end it cost him his life because he decided to protect her. 
Jay Gatsby was better than the rest because the people he was dealing with were all self absorbed and thought that money could buy their way out of everything, including any type of feeling toward anyone else who wasn't them, they didn't even care for each other the only jealousy came from a sense of someone taking your possession not because they truly loved their spouse. 

From Gone with the Wind to A Streetcar Named Desire

My very first blog on here was of Gone with the Wind, mainly because I absolutely love Vivien Leigh, she is my all time favorite actress and because of that I think she makes these two movies two of my favorites. It really shows her versatility as an actress, as Scarlet O'Hara she is strong and confident and knows what she wants and exactly how to get it. As Blanche she is a timid weak character who seems lost in a dreamland she romanticizes a lot where as Scarlet was a doer, not a dreamer.  For me she brought these two characters to life right out of the book, and who can forget about Marlon Brando and Stellaaaaa!!!!! That is probably the greatest one word ever on screen.

Gwendolyn Brooks

I love this quote because I think it pertains to so many things, in this life there are so many times that people are looked over because they aren't considered worthy, whether it be the color of their skin, their weight, their looks or their social status, and it's important for us all to remember that no matter what our flaws are and no matter what anyone else says we are just as important in this world as everyone else.
I hadn't heard of Gwendolyn Brooks before this, but I'm not a big poetry reader, however as I read about her life she was quite smart and had a lot of influential things to say. I did find her poems to be a little depressing and raw, after I read her story though I get it, she wrote how things actually were, she witnessed a lot of things in her life and she didn't sugarcoat it.  

I love this quote below too, I was in a near fatal car accident many years ago and ever since then I do try to cherish all the little moments and not take too many things for granted, because once they are gone you won't get that experience again. She was a wise woman indeed. 

Roads less Traveled

This poem is probably my most favorite out of every poem in the book especially this passage of it. It speaks to me because of the life that I have lived, and also that of my daughter. I experienced different road bumps as a child and young adult than she did, yet we both took the road less traveled. To me that means even though it's not popular and what everyone else is doing, it does pay off to be yourself, to go down your own road even though it's not the most common and may not make you popular but it's okay to stand out. I do believe that we should choose our own path in life and not let anyone else choose for us and when everyone is going down the other road no one knows what excitement and adventures are down the other road, and wouldn't it be exciting to find out.

Mark, Huck and Tom

I always loved reading Mark Twin stories when I was younger, it holds a lot of memories for me. My aunts, who were my grandpa's sisters would always have his books in their house among others, but I was drawn to his because I loved the characters of Tom Sawyer and especially Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain writes with common sense, he pokes fun at the way people behave when he doesn't agree with their beliefs, but he always makes sense. Even as a young kid I could read his stories, they were entertaining back then, but reading them as an adult now I get much more meaning out of them. You truly see how Mark felt about slavery, and about how people thought they were better than others just because of their social class. I remember watching the movies that brought these characters to life for me, it was a much simpler place and time.