Final Blog

One of the things that I really improved on this semester was thesis statements and citing sources.  The freewrite strategy has really helped me out a ton on coming up with ideas for topics for my papers.  The easiest paper for me to write was the Drown essay because it gave us more freedom to choose what we wanted to write about because we could choose any short story that we wanted.  The lesson that really helped me out the most was the semicolons one because I really did not use it that much because I never knew how to use them, but now I do and I'll use them a lot more.  I feel a lot more prepared to write college-level papers now then what I did first semester, and especially before I came to college.

What stands out to me

What really stands out to me is that a lot of the poems we have been reading is having a lot to do with sex.  When I read poems for high school, I did not notice that any of them were having to do with that, and that surprises me.  Also, the stories are really in depth about the sex, which is kinda weird, but I guess that's what the author wanted.

"The Flea"

I believe this poem is about sex, which does not surprise me any more.  The guy in the poem says that they both have been bitten by the flea, so both of their blood is messed up, so if they have sex, it won't matter.  In the first stanza, the guy is trying to get her to sleep with him, and in the second stanza, it is pretty much him trying to get her to sleep with him again.  The third stanza has the flea dying and and nothing is wrong with their blood so they won't get weaker if they sleep together.

Poetry Experience

My poetry experience is very little.  In high school, we maybe read around five poems, but we did not work enough with them for me to remember anything about them.  I remember our teacher telling us that music was poetry, which if it is, I love poetry.  My definition of poetry is a line of words that can rhyme, but do not have to, and portrays a meaning to the reader in their own way.  I prefer reading poems that rhyme, because it flows and makes it easier to read.

Paper Topic

I am going to write my paper on how evil influenced Faustus' stupid choices of giving up all of his knowledge and soul to the devil for magic, in which he did not use the magic for anything but small, meaningless things.  I am also going to talk about how the evil influenced him to have intercourse with a demon, which is one of the most foolish sins. 

Faustus blog #2

The thing that really got my attention was in scene ten, he said he could not fully bring back a entire person, which shocked me because I thought he would be able to bring people fully back to life.  If this was possible, he could bring back anyone he wanted and have them be on his side to help him.  I think Faustus is too greedy and that is going to come back to bite him.  He already is very smart and has a lot of power, but bringing people back to life is just ridiculous.  He has to get his priorities figured out.

What was interesting to me

I thought the fact that wagner wanted a clown to be his servant.  I mean a clown is as worthless as a rock in a pond.  I would rather have an animal as a servant because they would actually do something like entertain me.  I just thought it was weird that he would ask a clown because clowns are know people that don't really do anything but make people laugh.  I thought it would be better to have a peasant do it or something.

Hierarchary

Dr. Faustus' hierarchy to me seems wrong.  My hierarchy is from high to low: God/religion, family, medicine, law, and philosophy.  The reason that ours nowadays is so much different than theirs back in that time is because in their time philosophy was a big deal because no one knew a whole lot in their time.  If they proved a theory or law, they became famous and had money.  Today, I think most people's hierarchy goes like this: Money, Family, Religion, Law, and philosophy.  A lot of people think that money is all they need, but it is not.  A lot people's morals have gone down because they think money is all they need to be complete.

This semester so far

I think this semester in this class is going pretty difficult for me.  English is a tough subject for me, especially literature.  Writing papers is tough for me, but I have to learn how to write them well to become successful in college.  I enjoy reading a lot, but its hard for me to understand literature.  I'm not a big talker, so when we have discussions, its hard for me to say something, but I have to get in the habit of talking during class for discussions.  I like the gists and blogging because it lets me say what I think and what I want to say.  Its going to be tough rest of the semester but I'm going to fight through it and do my best.

"Drown" by Junot Díaz

I chose to read Drown by Junot Díaz because I was told by you that I would like it, and I did!  The point of view of this story is first person, told by the main character who is also the narrator.  It is told from his prospective of his life and what he did with his best friend, Beto.  The setting of this story takes place in New Jersey and is told from a Dominican American's perspective of what life was like for them in 1996.

Bartleby, The Scrivener and The Birthmark

I think that both stories had a good meaning behind them but I thought "Bartleby, The Scrivener" took too long to get going.  The author talked about pointless things for the first half it seemed like.  "The Birthmark" got right to the point and did not take so long to get started.  I thought the characters in "Bartleby, the Scrivener" didn't change very much but the characters in "The Birthmark" did.  Bartleby changed a little bit from the beginning but after that he stayed the same the rest of the story. 

Class Discussion

I thought the discussion in class on Wednesday was true, but not entirely.  I grew up and lived in Sioux Center which is a town of about 7,000 people and is starting to have a lot more Hispanic people.  Right away this was different, but now I'm used to people of different race talking different languages around me.  I do think everybody has a little bit of racism in them, but not everyone is a heavy racist.  I have a lot of friends from my high school that were Hispanic and I had a really good friend who was Asian.  I think its fun hanging out with other people of different race because I learn a lot about their life and culture.  I have cousin's on my dad's side of the family who are part Indian, and I respect that.  I love them just as much as my other cousins.

Twitter: There's no way of changing it so get used to it

I myself use Twitter because I like to know what athletes are thinking and doing.  There is a way of verifying that it is really them, which is nice so people know that it is actually them.  Now, there is a lot a people who try and imitate them, which I think is stupid.  If I found out somebody created an account and tried to be me, I would be pissed, but I can't do anything about it.  Today's society is largely on the internet and because of this, there is no way of knowing who somebody is 100%.  Its the world we live in and we have to deal with it.  There is no way to take it back and that's the way it is going to be.

First Paper for Lit

The first paper for this class was pretty difficult for me.  Writing papers is one of my greatest weaknesses, especially literary analysis papers.  I thought the hardest part for me was finding information on my topic and relating to my topic for my paper.  I read the whole book but I did not understand it well so that also made it hard to write the paper.  I am more of a numbers and math person, but writing relates to everyday life so I thought it was good for that purpose.

The Metamorphosis

I thought that the Metamorphosis was very boring because the only part that I thought was interesting was when he turned into a bug.  I am a person who likes adventure books, so this was not entertaining to me. 

Sources Cited

 Amey, Michael D. "Living Under the Bell Jar: Surveillance and Resistance in Yevgeny Zamyatin's We. "Critical Survey 17.1 (2005): 22-38. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.

Hutchings, William. "Structure and Design in a Soviet Dystopia: H.G. Wells, Constructivism, and Yevegeny Zamyatin's We." Journal of Modern Literature 9.1 (1981): 81. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.

We. Trans. Natasha Randall.  New York: Moderen Library, 2006. Print.

Topic for Literary Analysis

I am going to do my topic on government/freedom for my literary analysis.  I found good information about the government in Russia in the 1920s and also about the government/society in the book We.

The end of We

I thought the book was going to be very good because I love to read science fiction books and watch science fiction movies.  Overall, I thought it was very confusing for me but when we went over in class I understood it a lot better.  I liked the fact that it dealt with mathematics because I am good at it and it interests me.  

Worst thing in We to me

I think that the worst thing about We is the fact that they have to have permission to have sex.  This is one of the most personal things or actions in people's lives and having permission to do it is just absurd.  Also they can't have their own children which is ridiculous because you would think that people want to keep their own kids but because of the One-State, they can't keep them and do not realize it.  It would be a terrible life to live in this book and have all these stupid rules you have to follow.

Strategies

Biographical Strategies- Some strategies that writers use is biographical strategies.  They use things that has happened to them in their real life and apply it to their work.  This can be said about We.  In We, some of the characters or actions can be from what really happened in Zamyatin's life.  The book We can really tell a lot about the writer because they use a lot of their person things in their work.

Historical Strategies- Historical strategies are used in many novels and books.  This is used because sometimes the reader can't understand the place and time normally, but in literature they can understand it.  In We, this strategy can be used the other way.  The author possibly could have looked and the time and place he was in and did the opposite.  He had to think how it would be in the future without knowing what it really is going to be like.

Reader Response Strategies- This strategy is that it focuses more on the reader rather than the actual work.  It focuses more on the reader's mind when they are reading to make a bigger impact on them.  In We, this is used with the main character, D-503, by making the reader think of what's going on in his head rather than the actual story line.

Vocab relating to We

Style- In We, the author rearranges his words so it is almost like a math equation, so it is different than ours to make seem like it is more in the future.
Tone- The author's attitude is very different in We to show that people do not have tones in the book because they are all supposed to be robots.
Irony- The ironic part of this book is that they refer to us as ancestors, which is weird that they are that far ahead in the future.
Plot- In We, there isn't much of a plot yet, except for the fact that D-503 wants to have sex with I-330.
Characterization- In We, the author makes it seem like D-503 really existed, because of how much he had in common with known people in today's world.
Setting- The story takes place on the One-State in the future.
Point of view- The point of view in We is that the government becomes more corrupt and that people lost a lot of freedom.
Symbol- A symbol in We is how their names are numbers and letters.  This represents how today that we are not very different.  We are all identified by numbers but we just don't realize it.
Theme- It is hard to tell what the main idea of the story is because I have not read it all yet but I think the meaning will have something to do with relating back to our society.

About Me

My name is Trev Koedam.  I am from Sioux Center, Iowa and I am a freshman.  I plan on majoring in accounting.  I like to play and watch sports, especially baseball and football.  I am a Green Bay Packers fan and a Colorado Rockies fan.  I also like to play Xbox, especially Call of Duty.