Has anyone else noticed a crazy amount of similarities between the Grapes of Wrath and The Things They Carried? Without any details the characters are living the same lives. They are struggling to survive in an unfamiliar place. They are losing the people they care about to circumstances they can't control. They are hopeless and unhappy because of decisions made by other people. Of course, the characters in these novels have completely different struggles, but what they have in common is eerie. The Joads have their family, O'Brien has his unit. You can find a little essence of Ma Joad... Continue reading

Nearly every person I've talked to about the end of The Grapes of Wrath has been unsettled by Steinbeck's use of the word "mysteriously" when describing the smile Rose of Sharon has at the moment she realizes that she will have to nurse the dying man in order for himto survive. Normaly when we think of mysterious, we think sly or coy, but it is obvious that Steinbeck isn't referring to the smile that way. So what does he mean by mysterious? One definition I found of the word states that the it means to be eluding in explanation or... Continue reading

This is going to be a bit of a stretch on the "pop-culture critic" idea, but I noticed this earlier this week and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. A few days ago, I was getting a ride home from a friend of mine. Every time she saw a baby blue car she would point it out, saying something like "That family just had a baby boy!". She was joking, of course, but it got us talking about colors and how our society has casted genders to them. Every person in America learns from... Continue reading

I believe wholeheartedly that women should have equal rights, but I don't particularly believe in the feminist movement. Maybe thats just because I think of feminism by its extreme stereotype. Allot of the posts on the feminism blogs simply annoyed me. Yes, women are not yet completely equal, but in this day and age a women does not have to do housework if she doesn't want to. Yes, cleaning ads are marketed to women, but that's for commercial reasons, not sexist ones. It doesn't bother me that there are still stereotypes out there for women because I know that I... Continue reading

I think most people would agree that women still have reasons to be discontented with the supposed equality between the sexes. It seems to me that the typical woman's role- the idea that women are weaker and that they raise the children, clean the house, etc.- is something that was created hundreds of years ago. The fact that this ideal is so long lasting has led me to wonder, will women ever be able to move past it? Even today with a growing trend of stay-at-home dads and working women, housework still takes on feminine connotations. Is it possible for... Continue reading

"Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life." Comparing the Gatsby we grew to know throughout this book to what Nick originally said about him creates an interesting view of the man. In this passage, Nick describes Gatsby as the personification of the luxious excess the upper class lives with. But Nick can't find it in himself to hate Gatsby. Nick speaks of Gatsby's successful gestures, but I'm a little confused about what... Continue reading

I won't hesitate to tell you that I did not enjoy English last year. We read allot of books, we read them fast, and a vast majority of them were pretty unbearable. I think that the quality of the literature this year has greatly improved. The Catcher in the Rye is quite possibly my favorite book of all time. I read it on my own a couple years ago and since then, it has become the book I pick up when I'm bored and looking for something to pass the time. I thought the Crucible was an entertaining story and... Continue reading

Frederick Douglass's narrative must have convinced a great deal of people to join the anti-slavery cause. I thinkwhat really moved the people of the time was his eloquence. Douglass was a former slave, yet he could speak like he was educated with the top men of the time period. Slavery was built on the idea that the slaves needed the institution, that they were happier under slavery than they would be without it. Douglass's narrative showed the American people that not only was slavery demeaning and wrong, but that slaves were no less capable than white men. I think ultimately,... Continue reading

In the finalmoments of The Last of the Mohicans, Chinochngook made the prediction that soon the west would not be somewhere for rugged individuals in the same way that it was no longer a place for the Native Americas. He was correct. The American frontier did mostly grow out of its rugged individualism. Almost everywhere in the US has been urbanized and most people live in either cities or suburbs. No longer is it possible to move out west, grab your family some cheap land and start over. By losing the opportunities the frontier offered the poor, did America lose... Continue reading

Is it really impossible for a woman to be unmarked? While we learned about the difference between marked and unmarked in class, I began to think that there are situations where a woman can be unmarked. Imagine a woman who works in an office. If she is wearing a dark gray suit and a button down shirt and has on makeup, but not allot of it, and she wears her hair in a professional style, it is possible for her to be unmarked. The woman would be wearing exactly what she is expected to, her hair would be in a... Continue reading

We're not very far into The Scarlet Letter, but the beginning of the story has me wondering about whether or not the story will truly be romantic. I'm still kind of shaky on the idea of romanticism, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen much of it yet in the book. Hester seems like a romantic main character. She defies social norms by remaining strong willed in her puritan society, but then Hawthorne revealed to us that the reason she stayed and endured the punishment was for the man she was in love with. Maybe I just... Continue reading

In the final seconds of The Crucible, John Proctor decides he would rather hang than lie about his affiliations with the devil. It was a desperate man's decision and he chose the more noble course of action. Although I think that the play ended really well, I still have a million questions. Did Proctor's death have any positive consequences on Salem? How did the girls react to Abby leaving? Did anyone besides Hale feel any remorse for what they'd done? I guess Miller left us with a chance to fill in our own blanks, but this is one of those... Continue reading

Since elementary school, most children have known a little background on the Salem witch trials. I always knew the basic gist (someone cries witch, town goes crazy, etc.). It wasn't until I began reading The Crucible that I learned that the townspeople who were claiming to be the victims of witches were all children. I can't help but wonder why an entire town completely trusted the stories of teenage girls. The more I read, the more I wonder about Abby. In the beginning of the story, she seemed strong willed and deceitful. At this point, she seems downright crazy. From... Continue reading

Circular Thinking is when a person uses fact A to justify fact B, and then fact B to justify fact A. This proves that fact A was true and therefore fact B is true. Confused? I think that might be the point... It really isn't that complicated, though. Here, I'll give you and example: People often question why reality stars are famous for doing nothing. Someone, somewhere decided that people should give the Kardashians attention. The family became famous, then more people give them attention. They become even more famous. That's circular thinking. Why are the Kardashians famous? Because people... Continue reading

Like almost all other teenagers in America, I'm constantly fighting a losing battle with procrastination. Lately, my academic downfall has been my recent discovery that Hulu.com has every episode of the wrongly canceled series, Arrested Development. For those of you that have never seen the show, the plot revolves around the dysfunctional Bluth family. The show begins as the father and patriarch of the family, George Bluth, is arrested for fraud. That leaves his adult son Michael in charge of keeping the rest of family out of trouble. The once privileged family is now strapped for cash and struggling. The... Continue reading

Catcher in the Rye isn't a normal book. Its lacking many common things that are crucial to what we consider a novel today. Holden is an anti-hero, the book has no central plot, there is no resolution at the end, and the reader never meets many of the main characters. Throughout the book, Holden isn't working to solve a problem. When we are young, we're taught that stories have a conflict and a resolution. Catcher doesn't follow that mold. Holden often talked about Jane Gallagher and his brother, D.B., but the reader doesn't meet either of these characters. Cather in... Continue reading

I don't think anyone would would say that American society is perfect. It has its flaws. The rich keep getting richer, the deficit is growing, the big oil companies have too much power, etc.... America needs work- we all know it. But I think Howard Zinn overstated the problems that American society has. Reading his essay, I felt that his goal was to make me angry and to make me agree with him. It was all pathos and very little ethos. Many of his point were valid- yes America spends too much money, and choices when it comes to politicians... Continue reading