Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B Blog

         In "The Yellow Wallpaper" symbolism takes a significant meaning towards the way women were and are still being dominated by men. The narrator of the story is a women possibly suffering from post pardum pregnancy. Her husband John (who also is a physician) completely isolates her from having any real contact with anyone except for himself and his sister. Gilman writes, "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do? (266).  He tries to cover up the fact that his wife is suffering from more than a simple nervous depression. The yellow wallpaper symbolize John's dominance over his wife by trying to mask/cover up the fact that his wife is suffering from more than a nervous breakdown. John tries to keep his wife covered like a wallpaper so that no one suspects that she is indeed sick like she claims to be. He feeds her with sound words and make her powerless against all that he says. Gilman states, "But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there...., "He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself for his sake, and keep well" (271). This isolation that his wife receives crosses over to the yellow wallpaper by generating a sense of powerlessness and vulnerability coming from the wife.

       The symbolism that the wallpaper transforms itself is into desperation coming from John's wife in trying to escape from isolation. Gilman writes, "And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern- it strangles so.." (276). By tearing down the yellow wallpaper she is letting out months of feeling over analyzed as being incompitent, powerless, isolated, and not being given the chance to fully recover. Her husband makes all the decisions without any consent from her. The yellow wallpaper despite being "repellent, revolting" (267) gave her sense of hope and being able to strip and rid off her inner frustration. Gilman states, "If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be half so bad" (276). She wants to feel like she still has some control of her life and the decisions that are being made for her. Those heads that she claims to see behind the wallpaper are a symbolism of dominance that her husband and sister have over her. The woman or women she claims are trying to crawl out from behind the yellow wallpaper is symbolizing her struggle with herself and those people trying to dominate her.

Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B Blog

The Things They Carried by Tim O'brien 

In The Things They Carried, the theme of war is the emotional guilt and fear the men at war carry with them. Tim O'brien lists the physical things the men at combat carry with them, but as the story unfolds, the actual things they carry with them are the burdens that comes with being at war and alone. They carried the infections that came from being at war for a long period of time. Tim O'brien writes, "They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing-these were intangibles, but the intagibles had their own mass and speific gravity, they had tangible weight." (352). That constant fear and emotional distress these men had while being at war caused them to battle against fantasy and reality. They longed for the feeling of being back at home;not having to fear going to sleep and whether or not they would wake up to a gun fire. They longed for love and the companionship from someone who is real, warm, breathing (someone they can hold). Obrien writes, "They carried their own lives" (349). They carried the most heaviest burden of all. They carried the burden of the negative affects of war. Each man grieffed. Each man wanted to feel loved. Each man was in constant terror from being caught in the middle of war.

The burden of war causes the men to relinquish the things that carry with them that makes them feel free and alive. Obrien states, "They carried the shameful memories. They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing" (352). They no longer had clean cut memories, but instead they had memories that will make them relive every single day the horrific ordeal, whether it is  mentally,physically, and emotionally. The shame that has been brought is because of their lack of confrontation to reality.The guilt, terror, and vulnerability eqauls to carrying "P-38 can openers, pocket knifes, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sweing kits... (341). The physical things they can just put down, but the emotional baggage is a load of fear that cannot just simply be put down and forgotten.

Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B Blog

The Storm by Kate Chopin 1898

In The Storm, the setting is the crucial and pivoting point in how the story unfolds. Without the element of the storm in the story, the actions that Calixta and Alcee Laballiere took would of not occurred. The setting is significant because as the storm begins to intensify, so does the sexual tension between Calixta and Alcee. When we are first introduce to Calixta's character "she was greatly occupied and did not notice the approaching storm" (99). She had not yet reliazed how strong the storm was getting and her emotions and adrenaline were still in tact. The storm starts to intensify and she realizes the potential severity of it; when Alcee enters the home, both of their sexual frustration plays out as the storm begins to fall upon the town. Chopin writes, "The contact of her warm, palpitating body when he had unthinkingly drawn her into his arms, had aroused all the old-time infatuation and desire for her flesh" (101). Calixta and Alcee would of not had cheated on their spouses if the weather that day would of been sunny, cloudy, dusty, windy etc. When the storm was over so was the intensity of their sexual encounter. The intensity of the storm provided them with an adrenaline that caused them to have an affair.

                                                     Friedheimer's store

Minus the truck, I picture Friedheimer's store to look old and somewhere all the locals go to get their groceries. I picture this town to be small and the locals only being able to rely on limited places they can go to. Chopin writes, "Then he returned to his perch on the keg and sat stolidly holding the can of shrimps while the storm burst. It shook the wooden store and seemed to be ripping great furrows in the distant field" (99). This store is more like an old family tradition; it has been there for so long, it is more like a daily routine. This image fits the story because the way the story unfolds lets me to believe that the time and period is not recent, but it is a time period of the past.


                                                         The Storm

This is the storm itself; this storm had to be so intense to the point that it allowed for Calixta and Alcee to have an affair. Chopin states, "It began to grow dark, and suddenly realizing the situation she got up hurriedly and went about closing windows and doors" (99). The clouds overcasted the sky therfore set the atmosphere and setting for what was about to take place. Without the storm, Calixta would of not have been on edge wondering where her child and husband were keeping safe. That anxiousness casued by the storm led her to committ adultery. Say it would of been just another sunny say, those emotions running high would of not been the same. The storm fits the story not just because of the title, but because the storm is the catalyst for what happened between Calixta and Alcee.


                                           Old House (Calixta's Home)

I picture this to be Calixta, Bobinet, and Bibis home. It would be the perfect setting for Calixta and Alcee's enounter and it is secluded from the rest of the town. They're left to their own decives and this type of home and atmosphere would provide them with comfort because it is large and isolated. Picture the blue sky, dark and gloomy and you have yourself a sexual encounter with two old lovers. This home fits the story because it provides the character with a motive and place to act upon their feelings.


                                                   After the Storm

This is the imagine I picture after the storm has passed and povides a new found clarity. Chopin writes, "The rain was over; and the sun was turning the glistening green world into a palace of gems " (102). It seems though as if the calm after the storm provided both Calixta and Alcee a new found outlook on their marriage. They both at the end have a different approach on how to work on their marriage. For Calixta is to be less overscrupulous and for Alcee to be more understanding. The sun glistening is a form of a new start for their marriages.

Alejandra Yanez Eng 1B Blog

1. Who is the main character or protagonist of the story?
         The main character in Cathedral is the husband (the blind man's friend's husband). He is the narrator and the point of view is coming from solely him; this type of narration is participant. The story unfolds through the eyes of the narrator who is recounting both, how he and his wife met and his personal account about Robert's visit (the old blind man). In other words, how Robert touched both their lives. .

 2. Make a quick list of the character's physical, mental, moral, or behavioral traits. Which seem especially significant to the action of the story?  

• The narrator of the story is judgmental, jealous, fearful, sarcastic, and anti social. Carver writes, "A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to (81). Just by reading the 1st paragraph it is crystal clear that the husband does not like the idea about having a blind man coming to visit his wife. All throughout the story, except for the end, the narrator’s mental and behavioral traits seem to be that of isolation and fearfulness. He is not keen on his wife having such a meaningful relationship with someone she met ten years ago. His wife even makes a comment, "you don't have any friends" (83).  Nothing is given about the characters physical traits, but just by the way his character development unfolds one can assume he is a white man, probably in his thirties who drinks his sorrows away. Throughout the story the narrator kept drinking his drink after drink and would isolate himself from communicating with the Robert and his wife. 

•   No physical traits are given about the narrator’s wife, but her behavioral and mental traits are the pivotal points as to how she got to meet Robert. Before she was married to her husband, she tried to commit suicide. Carver writes, "She went in and swallowed all the pills and capsules in the medicine chest and washed them down with a bottle of gin" (82). Her actions for trying to kill herself were feelings of emptiness, loneliness, and isolation. It is not until she meets Robert that her whole demeanor changes. Carver states, "I saw my wife laughing as she parked the car. I saw her get out of the car and shut the door. She was still wearing a smile. Just amazing" (84). Her husband is going through a reminiscent feeling she went through before meeting Robert. 

• Robert the old blind man's physical traits... "This blind man was late forties, a heavy-set, balding man with stooped shoulders, as if he carried a great weight there. He wore brown slacks, brown shoes, a light-brown shirt, a tie, a sports coat. Spiffy. He also had this full beard" (84).  He is not your typical blind man because "he didn't use a cane and he didn't wear dark glasses". There is something about this old man that makes one want to go more in depth of who this man truly is. As the reader, one knows that there is something more to this man than meets the eye. He is genuine, warm, caring, compassionate, and open minded. He states that "we learn something new every day" (88). The way he touches people is so soothing that it changes people's behavior and mental status. It did for both the husband and the wife. 

 3. Does the main character have an antagonist in the story? How do they differ?
         Technically there is no antagonist in the story, but I think possibly the narrator can be his own antagonist. He isolates himself from everyone and he does not allow himself to socialize with people outside his comfort zone. His own wife tells him that he has no friends (83). His solution for his despair is to drink, roll and smoke a blunt. Carver writes, "I got our drinks and sat down on the sofa with him. Then I rolled us two fat numbers. I lit one and passed it. I brought it to his fingers. He took it and inhaled" (87). I concluded that he most likely does this every night after his wife goes to bed. He mentions that they never go to bed at the same time (87). He waits for her to go to bed and then rolls up a joint. He smokes it by himself and in his living room, while watching cathedrals on TV late at night. He is a loner, but he forces this on himself. He alienates himself from people, even from his own wife. He fights against himself. He can choose to struggle against himself or fight to change his way of viewing and living life in isolation. 


4. Does the way the protagonist speaks reveal anything about his or her personality?         
          Yes, as I mentioned earlier. To me this guy seems lonely; he has this emptiness in him that does not allow him to reach out to others. He is quick to judge and he is not a people person. Carver writes, "They talked of things that had happened to them-to them!- these past years. I waited in vain to hear my name on my wides sweet lips" (86). From the time Robert gets to his home, instead of being active in socializing with him, he just stays there in silent. He does not do much when it comes to being involved with people. He is quick to judge though. He hated the idea of some old blind man coming to his home and spending the night to pay a visit to his wife. If anything he seems irritated at the fact that his wife could not stop smiling and gazing at the old man since he got to their home. He seems not to give people a chance, but instead he boots them out before they can get close. His wife is probably the only exception. 


5. If the story is told in the first person, what is revealed about how the protagonist views his or her surroundings? 
        The story is told in first person. He views his surroundings as being his gateway from having to deal with his lack of participation with other people. By hiding behind his TV he feels that he does not have to confront his issues, when in fact his surroundings are the very thing that is jeopardizing his state of mind. Also, how keeps a close eye on his wife and Robert at all times. His jealousy gets the best of him and makes him keep a constant eye on both of them. The story being in first person lets us tap into what emotions like distrust and insecurity the husband has over his wife being so close with Robert. It is not a matter of assumption, but rather actual truth me as the reader gets just by reading.


6. What is the character's primary motivation? Does this motivation seem reasonable to you?
          The character's motivation is primarily to ensure that nothings happen between his wife and Robert. Even though he is old and blind, he still feels somewhat threaten by his arrival. The comments he would make to his wife about the old man were sardonic. Carver writes, "Her name was Beulah. Beulah! That's the name for a colored woman. Was his wife a Negro?" (83). His comments or "jokes" tend to reflect on his discomfort of having he old man stay at his home. Even when Robert arrives, he feels jealous because his wife instead of looking at him looks and tends to Robert. He waits in agony for his wife to bring him up in a conversation.



7. Does the protagonist fully understand his or her motivations?
        The husband does not really understand his own motivations. I mean, he comes to his own assumptions about what Roberts real intentions are with his wife. He is just so quick to judge this man without getting to know him personally and not just what he hears from his wife. I bet he must feel pretty stupid after he comes to a realization about Roberts intentions and the impact he had on him by just by one touch. 



8. In what ways is the protagonist changed or tested by the events of the story?           
          Robert comes to visit! The husband has an epiphany after Robert guides his fingers to draw a cathedral. Carver writes, "My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn't feel like I was inside anything. It's really something, I said" (93). He realizes that he tends to alienate people and isolate himself from others. This realization comes from the midst of the drawing "session" he has with Robert. This epiphany is slowly built; Robert asks the husband if he is in any way religious (91). They began to converse and Robert has an idea and from their on the motion of the pen takes over. His character seems a bit more caring after he sees what things are really for. For once he let himself go completely and realized what he has been fighting against and that was himself. 





My Protagonist 

A Rose For Emily

In "A Rose for Emily," the point of view comes from a first-person narration, although, it is unclear who the the narrator of the story is. The narration of the story comes from a nonparticipant narrator because he or she writes in third person. William Faulkner writes, "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral" (33). Faulkner states, "She looked bloated like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal...."(35). The reader is left to their own devices to come to a conclusion of who the narrator is. The point of view is clearly not coming from Miss Emily herself, or is it? After all, I was left under the impression that Miss Emily is not all there. She is projected as a crazy person, as she depicted as someone is acted in a bizarre manner, and in the end, someone who gets into bed and sleeps with a corpse. The narrator of the story could be Emily herself; this would be unusual and obscured because then it would just reaffirm my beliefs of her being crazed. There is another possibility of who the narrator might be; the townspeople can possibly, and most likely, be the narrators. The way the narration starts begins and develops makes me believe that the point of view can perhaps be from the townspeople themselves. Faulkner writes, "We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background...". Presently, we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable" (36-37). The use of the word "we" and the single fact that whoever the narrator might be, he, she, or they know their way around the town and everyone and everything that comes in and out of it. If this is were to be the case, then it is unusual because it could be presented as if the townspeople came to an agreement to recount their perception and the life of  Emily Grierson.
      Faulkner might have selected this type of point of view to create mystery and peculiarness. The selection Faulkner creates conveys to the story itself because the narration is unclear and mysterious, and so are the actions that Miss Emily takes until her death. Even then, we are left wondering if she is in fact crazy or if her life was just a tragic one that unfolded and escalated for her to commit murder. The same goes towards the narration of the story. Why is it that the point of view is left to be interpreted by the reader? The point of view fits the theme of the story; that is the answer for why the narration is unclear. From beginning to end, the story is mysterious and one is left to ponder with the questions: why? how? when? and what? Faulkner states, "Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hear" (41). Faulkner's narration of this line suggests to me that there is a unified voice (possibly the entirety of townspeople) that deliver a sense of dismay and unclearity.

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

In a “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” the plot completely shocks me and takes me by surprise. To start off, the children and the baby die, which was completely tragic. I do not know what it is, but I do not condone children being killed in movies, books, or other forms of media. When Hiram and Bobby Lee took Bailey and John Wesley into the woods, I knew they were either going to perish at the hands of the two individuals or Hiram and Bobby Lee were going to kill Bailey in front of his son for mere pleasure. Then, the children’s mother, June Star, and the baby were also taken into the woods and the three shots and a scream were heard by the grandmother. I was expecting for the Misfit to let the grandmother go free because it initially seemed that the Misfit was opening up to her, but she ended up being shot three times in the chest. Overall, who kills a baby and two children and their parents? I did not think the five of them would end up being shot to death. I was expecting the grandmother to die, since it was her fault they were all murdered. If the grandmother would have kept her mouth silent and also remembered on time that the old plantation house was actually in Tennessee and not in Georgia in the beginning, none of that would have happened. Also, if she had not brought her cat along just as his son asked, she would be alive and so would her grandchildren, son, and daughter-in-law. The grandmother continuously attempted to convince The Misfit to reconsider his actions and that he was actually a good person, but her attempts proved to be useless. In truth, the grandmother is the one who is actually responsible for the entire family's death. I describe the grandmother's actions as uncaring, immoral, and horrible. Some films by the Coen Brothers, such as No Country For Old Men, A Serious Man, and The Ladykillers can be considered to be influenced by Flannery O'Connor. Each of their respective works contain large amounts of similarities. Both Coen Brothers' films and O'Connor's writings have examples of drama, suspense, irony, and tragedy. Settings for each of their works are also similar since the Coen Brothers and O'Connor place their stories in rural, Southern settings.    

Introduction

My name is Alejandra Yanez and I am twenty years old and this is hopefully my last year at PCC. I changed my major from biology to psychology. I discovered that I am terrible at math and to be a bilogy major, one has to have a passion, if not patience for the subject. I changed my major to psychology because I love talking to people and hearing about their problems. I am my friends own personal Dr. Phil because I give such great advice ( I like to think that I do). I want to be a psychology for sexually abused children because it is a matter that does not get talked about and especially in Latino culture, most ignore and try to burry the fact that there is a significant amount of children and young adults that have been through sexual abuse. I myself have personal reasosn for why I want to work with sexually abused children. Besides that, I am a former Puente student and I am now the treasurer for the Puente Club. I was running for VP of Campus Activities for student government here at PCC. I enjoy being involved in campus activities and being involved in clubs other than Puente. I am a major Coldplay fan!! I got the chance to meet them last year and it was just simply the best. I am expecting a lot of work from English 1B, but I am prepared for whatever is coming my way (I hope).