Girls to Women

I enjoyed reading this story, and have to say that it was one of my favorites. It told of how women are supposed to behave and act in order to be truly be a WOMAN. The mother in this story tries to teach her daughter the proper ways "like a lady and not the slut you are bent on becoming;" Jamaina Kincaid describes the role of women in life; however, this image had changed drastically over the years. Women these days do the same work as men. We are all "equal," or so we're taught. The truth is that women aren't treated the same as men. In my opinion we all the same on the inside we just look different on the outside.

Why FAT is NOT a fairy tale...

This poem has so much meaning to it. Jane Yolen talks about a futuristic fairy tale which is opposite from those we know and love. There has yet to be a fairy tale in which the princess is not depicted as thin, healthy, normal characters. That is cliche. Yolen establishes that her idea of a fairy tale is unrealistic. She criticizes the well-known ideas of fairy tales, and desires change. Throughout the poem Yolen uses several puns and imagery. The whole poem consists of three sentences and parallelism with her favorite fairy tales.
I think fairy tales should have a wide variety of images. By depicting other people in stories then people are able to relate more to the character, regardless if it is fiction or not. In reality everybody is not the same size so why should they be in fiction? Centuries ago, being larger in size was a sign of wealth and being thin was a sign poorness. Since then the world has changed drastically. Body image plays a large role in todays society, particularly with women. Whatever your size may be, as long as your healthy, then you should not be concerned with what others say. A positive attitude is the key.

In Bedford...

Throughout this week (Sept.6-10, 2010)we read about point of view, symbolism, theme, and style. I was able to see how the writers and authors incorporate these in their writing. You wonder what significance each has in the story, when really all these are necessary to create a story. Point of view is described as who tells us the story and how it's told. It is shown through the narrator of teller of the story. Symbolism is a person, object, or event that suggest more than its liberal meaning. With symbols, a symbol has a complex meaning; it has not only literal meaning, but also additional meanings beyond the literal. Sometimes the literal meaning of a symbol is absurd, so that the symbolic meaning over-rides the literal meaning. Symbols may have more than one meaning. In fact, the most significant symbols do convey an indefinite range of meanings. In Bedford, the theme of a story is the central ideal or meaning, and ti may be about life, society, or human nature. Style is referred to as the distinctice manner in which a writer arranges words to achieve particular effects, and it is essentially a concept that everyone understands on some level. Together these components create none other than a story. No matter how you spell or say it, a story is a story; no one can change that.

The Killings

Of all the stories we read this week, The Killings was my favorite. It had everything I like in a story; there was action, drama, and mystery. The title was interesting because it pointed to the suffering of Frank's loved ones in the story. Love, murder, betrayal and revenge are all presented in this story and were shown through the characters. The theme of the story is that all men will act on their emotions and every emotion exhibited is anger. In the end, a group of characters can and were only classified as murderers, and no one is truly better than the other. After reading this story, I look forward to reading more literary works by Andre Dubus. Thanks Bedford:)