Week 8 Writing

• p344-Q 2, 3           

    2. The land Sanders describes is very important to him, because it is where his memories are. Of his childhood, of his father, of his home.

    3. In the time her remembers, much has changed. His father was alive in his memory, talking to him, teaching him. He could walk around enjoying his family property. In present day, that property has been flooded by a dam, and his father has passed on.

• p352-Q 1, 3,4

 1.  The second person narration in this story is used to cause the reader to have the experience that is being outlined. The narrator is the child of the mother. We know that the narrator is young, that the narrator lives or is staying with their mother, that they haven't talked about anyhting too important in the last 3 days. Maybe they use television as a distraction?

 3. The last two paragraphs sort of confused me. It seems like you learn that they haven't talked over everyday happenings for at least 3 days. I think the "he" being referenced is an ex, and likely the child's father. Does the child sometimes stay or even live with him? Probably just visits from Friday to Sunday. The father had a woman over, and either drank beer or gave the child some- probably both.

4. It would change if it was in first person because everything would be "I" instead of you. It would not make you, the reader, live the experience first hand. As third person, even less so. You would just be seeing the story, and not feeling it as potently.

p365-Q 1, 4, 5

1.The effect of these references gives the poem a historical period. At the time it was written, that was relate-able imagery,  now it ages the piece. I am not certain how it situates us as readers... it makes me feel that the stories it tells are dated, personally. Yet, the stories are also timeless.

4.The imagery relates to the story of red riding hood clearly enough, and although I like Sexton, this poem felt rambling and strange, like the two halves are unrelated except to illustrate deception. I'm not sure how this stanza plays into the deception element, except perhaps to say that anything born will be deceived.

5. Sexton's version is more stripped down, less wordy and romantic. But otherwise similar. The change in the voice of the narrator affects our understanding of the story because it is a more brutal and straightforward in conveying character intention. The narrator questions elements of the story, like why the mother sent wine and cake instead of aspirin, but seems rather matter of fact otherwise. Like, deception is expected.

p381-Q1, 2, 3

1. Someone is alone. They are looking for a relationship. They go out dancing. They end up finding someone to dance with. They kiss this person. They have sex with this person. They start dating. They are head over heels for this person. They marry this person. They are tempted by another person. The person they are with is unfaithful. Their heart is broken. They try to fix it. They can't fix it. They both leave the relationship. The person is alone again.

The plot is different here because it is more straightforward written out "line by line". You don't have to think about how the song titles relate to real life.

2. I don't know that it makes an argument per se, it just shows us that this is a relatively regular scenario in love and relationships. 

3. Pop songs elicit a lot of deep feelings in people. We relate music to memories and experience, so it makes sense to formulate a short story made entirely of pop song titles.


p384-Q1 re: Sonnet 116

The main idea is that love never waivers, and if the speaker is wrong about the truth of love, than no person has ever loved. It is written in iambic pentameter. It is a sonnet. Every other line rhymes. The first quatrain speaks of true love, and how true love does not waiver. The second quatrain tells how strong love is, and timeless. The couplet has the speaker declaring if he is wrong about the meaning of true love, no one has ever experienced it.

p385-Q2, 4 re: Sonnet 29p

2.This Shakespearean sonnet seems to be saying that when the speaker is depressed about their lot in life, they only have to think about their love, and how much they are loved, and they are happy again. So happy that they would not trade with anyone even a king. The two sonnets share the same structure. The argument doesn't develop all that differently- in sonnet 116 we are challenged in the couplet to prove the speaker wrong, and in 29, we are not challenged, but rather the facts are stated rather matter of fact. Shakespeare wrote a lot of sonnets, so, I feel  he was generally simply comfortable with the technique.

4. The solace in remembering a loved one compares to the speaker's definition on love, because love is so pure and true to the speaker, it can lift them out of their lowliest state, and would not be traded for anything.