Final Presentation

link

Music is from Garageband Music database.

Technology

1. How is online learning different than in person learning?


One of the differences I found between an in person environment and an offline environment is how a student absorbs information. In my first online class I experienced something everyone experiences when reading. I would read the assignment or the material for us to study, and no matter how many times I read it I just could not understand what it was asking. Which, was quite annoying. Other problems would be communication, when it comes to sending a email to the professor I tent to become self conscious and hope I don't type or spell something wrong. I hate being embarrassed. However, on the upside, I can wear whatever I please, stand up and get food without thinking I'm disrupting people. Researching a answer faster is also another plus. 

2. What are the particular challenges or benefits to taking and English class (in particular) in an online environment?


I found that the benefits in taking an online english class would be the fact that you are in constant use of a computer. You can instantly look up whatever you need on the internet, you can look up the definition of words that you don't understand. There is a larger range of information out on the web. One can copy and paste what they need to remember rather than writing down notes in a class and loosing them later. There is a good point of contact with the teacher for those who are shy about going in person. 

3. Which of the technologies that we used this semester was most beneficial to you?


I found that the Blog was a good place to submit assignments before turning them in. Constantly over the semesters that Yaviapi first began online classes there were times when blackboard would go down. Which was bad news to people who want to submit what they just wrote up. But considering that the blog is on a different site, a student's work can be posted and saved until the server is back up. Not to mention I find that many student's computers tend to crash suddenly without saving their work, blogs and other sites that support documents save constantly so nothing is lost. I would suggest to other's to use this blogging system or something like Google Docs to open their work it, that way it's saved on the internet and can be reopened on any computer(if you remember your password).


Other technologies I found useful was how the teacher would make us video's now and then, video's that we can pause and continue later if something came up. 
Spell check is a given miracle of technology, so is the internet for research purposes. 

4. Which did you like the most?


I found the Internet to be the one I love the most. If you take away the distractions it gives me, the resources are unlimited. I'm also pretty good at finding things there for I found it very useful for this class when I needed to find something I couldn't in other sources. 

5. Which will you use in the future and how will you use them?


Of course I will be using the internet in the future no matter what the subject. I will also use blog programs to back up things I fear of loosing, of if I don't trust the computer I am working at. I will also advice fellow students to use blogs if they have unreliable computers.

Reflection

English 102 has been a fun class to participate in and has giving me many useful things that will surly help in my future courses. Some of the skills learned will most defiantly come up again in essay writing in the suture such as knowing what the MLA format looks like. How to tell summary from analysis, creating a thesis and knowing how to make a literary analysis paper. These where skills that I had not fully developed before or had none at all. I am happy that I learned them in this class.

Some of the readings where different as well which gave me some things to consider when it comes to writing. The book Winter's Bone made me think about how writers incorporate life experiences into their own books and poetry for descriptive writing. I find that after reading good examples of these qualities I have found it useful to my own writing. Up in the Air was a more challenging book to concentrate on than I had anticipated. However the challenge was accepted and many more things came from it. This book taught me more about behavioral patterns between people, and how a writer was able to take the indescribably and describe it well into writing. This is something I admired, and I might even consider reading into his other books once the semester is over.

The majority of my challenges in this class were defiantly the papers. Considering I do not have much experience in writing them and my past experiences, they were not my strong suit. Keeping myself from distraction was another issue. I believe I was able to overcome these problems. After reviewing on how I wrote and improving it and limiting my free time I was able to start and get my worked turned in on time and to the best quality that I could muster. Because of that I believe my writing process has changed for the better. After looking at my old work to newer work I had noticed that at some steps in my writing I had taken more time to refine details that I would have normally ignored. In summary, I would elaborate where I needed too even if I felt it to be unnecessary. I had also began to gather information while I was reading the material or watching it. Which saved me time as I developed my thesis. I think that will be a handy skill.

I believe I have met most of the Learning Outcomes. Some of them I know I am not good at such as voice. Which is something that doesn't come to me considering I have little opinion on anything and thus give it little personality. But one day I will overcome this, and I hope that day will be within the last few weeks of out semester. If not then I promise to continue my studies in english and refine my ridged skill in paper writing.

Thank you for the semester.

Draft.

Fell Stone
English 102

Up in the Air ; how the message changed.

Up in the Air, the novel, was written by Walter Kirn in 2001. The movie to this book came out in 2009, obviously there are change in events between these two dates, another factor that changes the movie aside from saving screen time. The book came out on the year in when a new historical day was created, 9/11, which when terrorists flew planes straight into trading towers. After the shock wore off from that event many people became to believe it was an act of conspiracy. In the novel Up in the Air, the main character , Ryan later on believes he himself is within a conspiracy made by the airline he is loyal too. However in the movie that conspiracy he talked about is removed; the message of the content is changed as well. In the novel, the writer gives the message that big companies are more powerful than we think, meanwhile the movie gets a different message, its message is telling us to "grow up" and "stop being children". This change in message happened because of the economy downfall that happened over the eight year gap between the novel and movie. Thus, the message that is expressed within the book and movie are different because of the events that happened within the years between.

Between the year 2001 and 2009 many events had taken place that has changed the ways in which people think and act. One of the most obvious would be the terrorist attack on September 11th when two hijacked planes crashed into the world trade buildings. After this incident, security in many airports succumb to paranoia. Tom Bearden, a reporter in PBS Newshour says; “After 9/11, the government created the Transportation Security Administration, which was the largest single federal startup since World War II.” This ‘attack’ on the public's rights ended up leading to many conspiracy theories on how this might have been an inside job. Even a chain letter was started about 9/11, in this letter it demonstrates on how many of the names involved within the event can be broken down into one of the numbers in 9/11. This chain letter even goes as far to show that when a flight number of the first plane is typed into the Word program--and after changing font-- one would get the image of a plane crashing into two towers. Needless to say all of America was scared by this attack and wanted to blame it on someone.

Another event happened, economy recessions pop between these years. Many homeowners began to experience the value in property dropping and were forced to into foreclosure. Stock owners felt the same affects, taxes began to rise and many jobs were no longer available. In summary, the economy began to decline leaving many people to leave what was once luxury to a state of financial crisis and panic.

In correspondence to the book, the terrorist attack happened during the creation of the novel. Thus the effects of surrounding paranoia began to work its way into the pages. In the same way when a plague would affect the style of art in the past. A good example would be when the main character begins to believe that the company he is getting flight points from is using him as a guinea pig. The reason would to see if there was a way to make other customers more like him. He ends up telling this idea to the husband of his ex-wife; who doesn’t believe him. Another example would been when he bumps into a young woman who was at one of his speeches. She begins to track him so that they would meet again, this is something he doesn’t notice at first until she mentions it. This ‘accidental’ bump in turned out to be planned, thus a smaller conspiracy. A more subtle way the author applies the subtext would be with Ryan’s sister. She ran off after two dogs had died before her. Behavior that he was not accustomed too and had no real solid ground to stand on; according to him. Later she does tell him that it was about the dogs and the stress that she was under. This was against the image that he had of her and thus can be seen as some sort of conspiracy. Overall the writer, Walter Krin, was attempting to send a message through to the reader that there might be conspiracies afoot, and that everyone should begin to manage their own assets. Much like how Ryan fought against what might have been credit card thieves, and others trying to steal away his frequent flyer points. Basically it tells us to watch out money because something bad might happen to it. Which did with the economic crisis.

However the message in the movie is quite different. Instead of promoting the notion to protect assets, the story tells us to ‘grow up’. The reason to tell us all to grow up might simply have to do with the wars that began back then, and the economic downfall that put everyone into shock. A few good examples of this message would be when a young worker is added to Ryan’s group. This girl ends up attached to Ryan in attempts to have her gain experience. During their travels she receives a text message from her boyfriend, in this message he broke up with her. Text messaging, something that is fairly new to communication, would be something considered childish. This would lead people to want to wish people who use text messaging for serious matters to grow up and talk it out ‘properly’. Later on the girl looks at Ryan while on a docking bay taking pictures for his sister. She leaves him there after telling him to ‘grow up’, this was a more direct approach for the message. Ryan would represent those who are attempting to run away from problems in their own way, while the girl represents those who have looked at the problems and want everyone else to also address them. One of the more complex symbols for this message would be when the husband to be cowers away before the wedding starts. Ryan goes in to talk to him, this dialogue takes place within a daycare room. A grown man sits in a small plastic chair, as he is talked to by Ryan who attempts to tell him to grow up. Even outside this child’s room is the other sister who watches like a disappointed parent waiting for the children to grow up and walk out of the playground. Overall the message is clear to the viewers, they need to wake up and look at the global problems, whether they do something or not is their own decision.

In summary; the message in the book is changed due to many events that changed the lives of many in those years. When the movie came out the directory ended up giving it a whole new message; “grow up”. This change was obviously caused by the most serious matters such as the 9/11 incident, economy downfall and wars that began in the middle east.

video http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/terrorism/july-dec11/safeskies_09-08.html

simple chain main: http://alexbeeonmyspace.blogspot.com/2007/07/911-chain-letter.html

events: http://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline2000.html

economy: http://useconomy.about.com/od/grossdomesticproduct/a/cause_recession.htm

Note: I know there are some obvious errors such as the work cited, character names, lack of quotes, etc. But right now this is just a draft, I'm still perfecting it.

Essay3 Introduction.

Up in the Air, the novel, was written by Walter Kirn in 2001. The movie to this book came out in 2009, obviously there are change in events between these two dates, another factor that changes the movie aside from saving screen time. The book came out on the year in when a new historical date was created, 9/11, which when terrorists flews planes straight into trading towers. After the shock wore off from that event many people became to believe it was an act of conspiracy. In the novel Up in the Air, the main character ,Ryan Bingham, later on believes he himself is within a conspiracy made by the airline he is loyal too. However in the movie that conspiracy he talked about is removed, the message of the content is changed as well. In the novel, the writer gives the message that big companies are more powerful than we think, meanwhile the movie gets a different message, its message is telling us to "grow up" and "stop being children". This change in message happened because of the economy downfall that happened over the eight year gap between the novel and movie. 

Up in the Air

"Great minds think alike."
  Words said by a person unknown but repeated by the millions leaving only the question of how such a thing spreads though a collective subconscience. The same collective that keeps people from running into one another when walking together and not looking at one another. The same collective that when one half of the masses knows something the other side of the world acquires the same information without being told by those strangers.
"Great minds think alike."
It was no so much as that the minds where great but that they thought alike. Something he considered when he was the age of a middle schooler. "What if I am the only one that thinks?" That might have been the Matrix series and The Truman Show speaking, but when you think such a thing you makes you feel so lonely.
"Over six billion humans on this small planet and I feel lonely, is that selfish?" He asks himself as he sits upon a airport, with many other humans, looking away from one another to preserve a cultural norm.
'Why can't we look at each other?', he wonders, 'it's just eye contact.' The plane takes off, slowly speeding up and cutting over the air higher and higher. The boy looks out the window, this was a human accomplishment that should be respected and looked in at awe. But what is everyone doing? Looking down at books, phones, keeping to themselves to make sure their dignity and status is intact. Just like high school. Who needs to give attention to the accomplishments of humans when you can just climb the social latter and be pampered by people whom you would never respect?
Higher the plane went the more the boy began to think to himself, looking at the buildings becoming dots and dots becoming blocks. He noticed how water fell down the sides of mountains creating rivers, his mind took a mental note so that he could use it in future art projects.
Plane lands, no one talked to anyone else the whole hour. Back on ground in a new place, he felt like he didn't move, however car license plates told him otherwise. It rained here the entire length of his visit. The humid air pushed though his fine hair making it curl against his face in a matter of minutes. His eyes didn't blink as much here, but breathing was harder. He was used to dryer climates. Easier to breath. He adapted.
He met a familiar face, a sister who would entertain him for the next three days. In the car they got, slowly driving out of the confusing airport. Roads overlap over more roads building up in the sky like buildings for cars. It was a interesting sight, so was the box trains and seagulls. His sister started listening things to see, places to eat, the usual. When most humans would try to build off that list he merely stayed silent. Like the Borg on Star Trek, he did not wish to bother her with irrelevant conversations. She continued on food, he wasn't really hungry so that held more silence than before.
Again his mind wondered. Mostly pondering on weather people acted the same here or not. It was later proven right. One of the top culture norms: Ignore that which is unusual. Unusual as in it goes against other norms. There were more homeless people here, who would try to talk to him and his sister, he was told to keep eyes down and not say anything, he complied, but felt bad afterwards.
The food was different here, but good.
The bed was different, but he found sleep nonetheless.
He returned to the different airport. Much larger than the last. Found his plane and waited. On the flight back he pulled out a book to start reading on for class. Up in the Air, by Walter Kirn. He had little opinion on the cover. However he got far in the book durring his flight. He ate chocolate offered by the woman beside him. A trade for when he opened her water bottle for her. He guessed her name to be Kathy or something with a "Ka" sound at the beginning. She was probably returning home from a little girls party. While there she got disturbing news that someone she was close to died. Thus, the chocolate to help cope.
The boy went back to reading, concentrating harder on the words. Pretty soon he began to run his eyes over them quickly without a disrupting thought in his pattern.
He was more satisfied with the book than he thought, someone else thought like him. Not on just how to communication but on the patterns and culture within the Air World or something like that. It was just like how a mind works too, and a good short description. You see someone and you know their history with yourself instantly, however it takes longer to read in a book, but he didn't mind.
The plane landed. The boy was disappointed but hungry anyway. He reunited with his parents and told them how the trip went describing everything he could remember. They seemed uninterested as the mother cut him off frequently to ask if they needed anything from a store they would soon pass. Eventually his confidence in sharing his travels was lost, he sat down and remained silent. Things were back to normal. His opinions didn't matter here, just his performance. The car was silent aside from the changing of the radio channel.


"Great minds think alike."
He was going to finish the book when he got home.


Image source: Link
The Truman show: Link

Mid-term Check In.

Dear Laura Cline,


  Well, first half of this semester really flew by didn't it? Spring always feels shorter. So far in this class I have found a couple of difficulties but a couple of strengths as well within both my writing and study skills. Some of my difficulties reside mostly within my simple personal life, which mostly consists of the television that sits in the living room where I work. I'm sure everyone has had this problem within their life where they only wished to lay back and watch the day away with the big screen. I myself, being a huge fan of movies and science fiction series, have been watching it a little bit too much and neglecting my schoolwork. However I have devised a plan to help me resolve this issue which has been restricting me from better performance in both this class and others. So far this plan has been working and my homework has been going easier and smoother than before. Hopefully there will be a noticeable change in my future assignments.


Other difficulties are not as great as the first one I mentioned. Just a few misunderstandings that have been resolved. Such as when I mistook a literary analysis paper for a simple analysis paper. A mistake on my part. I have also had trouble developing a thesis on any writings we had to do so far. For some reason I find making a thesis harder than it seems because my personal opinion or ideas on the readings are few in numbers. Is there any techniques you would suggest for thinking up thesis'? If so please let me know, I've been struggling hard with it.


Aside from those difficulties, I have found this class easy to work in with a good set up of the system. Things are easy to find and overall it has been easier to navigate through this class than any other online english course I have had. For the rest of the semester I hope to clean up my grammer and spelling. Finding a way to make better thesis' would also be a nice advancement for future literacy analysis papers as well.


Hope the rest of the year will be pleasant for you.
Live long and Prosper. 




Stone.

Essay3

Emma Stone

English 102

Winter’s Bone and Daniel Woodrell’s life.

My opinion on the novel Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell, is neither a negative one or positive. I found these pages to be both emotionally and intellectually stimulating. However I do believe that the writer chose to give it more of an emotional appeal to the readers rather than something to think about. Such as the family bonds taking place (which are expected from the location the book was set within), the fighting, the disputes and relationships between each family name mostly appealed to that. The descriptions of scenery was in a simple format but because of that it sets up visuals so that anyone can imagine it clearly without any visual aid. Even in places where such descriptions seemed unnecessary, it would still set a good mood; ”Chopped corn stalks poked above the snow, and useless old tassel and shucks has blown into the wire fencerows and stuck to the barbs.  Coyotes began calling down the moon.”(99 Daniel) Human behavior in story telling often calls for description for any type of emotion feedback, such as a comedian does to set the context of their joke, thus I enjoyed the settings given.

As far as the story and plot goes I found it straight to the point but puzzling. Mainly because the objective was for Ree to simply find her father, a story plot which is used in many detective stories. However Ree was no detective and only had distant but close relatives to rely on. As she asks around each family member she could reach I felt like I was gaining less information as she encountered stubborn people and threatening situations. Emotional feedback was, however, keep intact and active as she faced depressing conversations, such as when Teardrop talked about taking one of her brothers before it was official that all hope was lost. Because my emotional interest was kept the balance between emotion and intellect was kept, thus keeping me interested.

In the end I found the book very good, but like a cliffhanger leaving with many questions but still letting me be satisfied with finishing the last few pages.

The main theme that intrigued me the most was how Woodrell went into detail about each relationship that Ree had with her family. Although somewhere within the book I began to lose track of that family tree I still found it stimulating to read about. The relationships were very interesting from a sociological standpoint. I have also found that Woodrell had lived within an area where the families had a strong bond such as the characters in the book. Which concluded that such complicated relationships exist within this world.

Winter’s Bone is a recent addition to Woodrell’s writings and ended up becoming a film later on. An article on Woodrell states that Winter’s Bone is “..a book that bears the hallmarks of being crafted expertly over an extended period”(Williams) So I would assume that this book was given a long time to actually develop into the piece it is now.  It would be expected that Woodrell has also but some details of his life or experiences he had had over his years. An example of that would be the location of where he lived, amongst strong family bonds, that related to the characters in the novel. I would conclude that Woodrell wrote this novel to express the many experiences he had in his life to the readers and fans he had began to achieve threw his previous popular works.

I have evaluated that this novel is one that is based off of the writer's life and experiences. In an article it is said that the characters lived “...deep in the Missouri Ozarks, where the bond of family is stronger than the bond of the law...” Later it states that “Woodrell, fifty-seven, writes about what he knows. Born in the Ozarks... “(Carbot) Woodrell is born into Ozarks and thus grows up around these strong family bonds that he later placed between his characters within Winter’s Bone. His first hand experience within such conditions would have left him with heavy childhood memories leading him to write them into his book. His family had also lived in that location back until the 1840’s which is another thing that he incorporates into his novel.

Inspiration is another thing that existed within woodrell’s life to help create his novel. “There's an air of the gypsy camp about this place: Collinsville, the inspiration for Winter's Bone....These folks are the model for the Dolly clan in Winter's Bone.”(Williams) Many writers in the past and present use some type of model for their characters, these models tend to be someone they know or people they have observed. For Woodrell these people where a family of gypsy that had a camp and little respect for the law providing their own idea of justice. This is another example of something that Woodrell saw in his life, was affected by and placed within his book.

A simpler form of life to fiction would be simple surrounding areas. Already we see the real town of Ozark being used as a setting for Winter’s bone, but there are also small things like buildings. “We start off by driving around his neighbourhood, where he points out the run-down little houses and the cemetery which have figured in recent books.”(Williams) However small and insignificant these details may seem they played important parts within Woodrell’s writings, helping him set description threw his interesting style for setting a mood.

One great impact in Woodrell’s life that both affected him and his written would be when his father took him and moved away, from where he was originally born, for a job. This gave him the absent mother that is portrayed in the novel where Ree’s mother is absent minded. Ree also wished to get a job in the military just as woodrell did when his father moved them again to a new location to Kansas City. “ ‘I lived there for two years and I hated it. So much so that I left high school and joined the Marines the week I turned 17...’ “ (Willams) This gave a complicated relationship between he and his father. His father had done things that he did not particularly liked making him live in cities he prefered not to, he ran away from that by joining the Marines. This memory in his life is identical to that of Ree’s. She has a complicated relationship with her father, who in turn makes things difficult for her even when she has no feelings of responsibility for him. Yet she is forced to take responsibility even though all she wishes is to get away and join the military as the writer did. This is one of the largest impacts on Woodrell’s life, for after he joined the military he was kicked out for drug use, then later put threw a strip search when he crossed the Mexican border. On that day “...the officer muttered repeatedly. ‘That's not bad.’ ”(Cabot) as he read some of Woodrell’s writings in his journal. This lead on to his career in writing. Thus the most important part of Daniel Woodrell’s life was used to begin and create the character of Ree Dolly.

Over all, the time it took to spend on Winter’s Bone is more appreciated and seen when one looks over Woodrell’s life and how it is worked into the characters, setting and overall writing style. Critical moments within his life is what created and affected his writing. If he had not lived out those early years which closely related to Ree, he would have never even been able to become a writer let alone create Ree. His observations in life and places he lived is what made his stories as many writers have experienced. Such examples are easily seen in how he and Ree had the desire to join up with military. How he and other character’s had been involved with drug use. Also his memories on strong family bonds that existed where he lived in Ozark. Smaller things such as background settings and building structures were also used and however they seemed small the majority of his writing was poetic on the descriptions of places. In short all of Woodrell’s memories and events played an important part to this novel, Winter’s Bone.

Work Cited

Woodrell, Daniel. Winter’s Bone. New York: Back Bay Books, 2006. Print.

Williams, John. Daniel Woodrell: The Ozark Daredevil. The Independent. 16 June, 2006. Web.

Cabot, Tyler. Daniel Woodrell: Writer. Esquire. Being green. 2010. Web.

Article.

The Book Review: Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell was published by Mel Odom on July 16, 2010. Mel Odom is a writer who has written over one hundred novels including the famous Tomb Raider. In his review he points out how he can relate to Ree -- the main character-- because he grew up in Oklahoma and knows about the meth problem there. Odom also informs the readers that Winter's Bone is a depressing book and can cause emotional feed back. This article has been copied to other websites, such as SeattlePi, but the original copy is found on Blog Critics


In response to the article, I would have to say it was written alright for a review. There were a few places that needed some editing but overall I got the main idea. Odom gets to the point quickly and gives good suggestions on how to go about reading other Woodrell books. This article is a simple one that can be used to support my thesis on how the author put a little bit of himself into the book making it more personal and emotional to readers. For example; Ree wished to join the military and Woodrell was once in the Marines. So this emotional feed back from a fellow writer is light proof that Woodrell's writing style related to his own ambitions and made it very real to us readers. 








Odom, Mel. "The Book Review: Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell."Book Critics. Technorati Media. June 2008. Web. 2009.




Image source: [link]
How to write a good review: [link]

Winter's Bone

So far what I have read in Winter's Bone has been giving many different responses and reactions. For the first 26 pages I read out loud to my cat. When I did that I noticed that the narrator used many run on sentences that mostly set up the setting/feel of the moment. To me it was tiring to string out a breath to a sentence. Finding out the accent was also an interesting discovery, and also entertaining to my cat for me to give each character a different voice tone.
The story was something that really had to get my attention, being someone who is a fan of small drama detective books and series, the fact that her father is mysteriously gone and has a sketchy story going made things very interesting. Break out them Deerstalkers and your magnifying glass, its time to figure out what this man has been up too. In the beginning I too also thought Jessup had just been out about doing his drugs and drinking off somewhere like Ree thought. But as this went on and everyone she asked started to act shifty and down right secretive we can see that perhaps something is a miss. Not to mention when they really get into things such as Ree spotting the family car and trying to get to it only to have the person inside turn and drive the other way. How other family members try to make her think that he died in a explosion and the car being found burnt away with no one inside. Its all very suspicious and made me extremely curious. Now I'm at the point of suspecting every character within the book of being part of this unknown scheme. Such as the so called officer with the long hair and the white car. Maybe this man was actually a drug dealer who poses as a cop and tries to follow her dad in hopes of some pay back because he's in dept? Then later they met in the lake and some fighting goes down and they burn the car because they felt like it! Who knows. Guess I have to keep reading.

Other side dramas connected to the father's disappearance also made me a bit emotional. Such as when Teardrop tries to take away Sonny from the rest of the family. I don't really feel fond of children but when it comes down to them being taken away by someone else (family or not) I find it offensive. So that brought up some emotional feed back and 'booing' on my part. Other scenes such as Ree's mother looking off into the sunset were just written so beautiful and simple that I couldn't help but appreciate it. Overall I have been finding this book a entertaining read.


Image source: [link]
Be A Detective!

Essay two.

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street, written by Herman Melville, is a dark humor story about a scrivener (one who copies legal documents. The setting is in the 1850's, New York and contains a series of characters that give the short story background and a overall perspective for the readers. First there's the narrator who hires and directs the four people working for here. Then there's Turky and Nippers who have changing moods from one another giving a pattern in behavior in the office, mostly mood, and Ginger Nut who holds a smaller part in the patten, getting food and being a small help. Of course there is also Bartleby, the star and reason of the story, who is a quiet person who first stuck to the rules, did his work without a word before becoming indifferent from everything. As he becomes indifferent the plot continues being led by curiosity, which also, in a sense, lead this writing to gain popularity among all literature. 

As mentioned before, the writer gave each character a specific purpose within the story to develop a setting of sorts. The one thing that the human mind is most use to is repeated routines and patterns in other's behaviors etc.. So by giving characters places to be and ways to act in their normal behaviors gave the reader a good sense of what was happening. As most of us know "…the adult behavior patterns in the workplace affect how you go about your daily business."(1:Bigelow) Thus that pattern was disturbed when Bartleby began to work out of place and generally stopped working at all, it disrupted the pattern proving some negative feed back from other workers-- Turky and Nippers. Bartleby then became what some would call "the slacker"(2) causing the others to be offended in some sorts and agitated. This then gives a violent sense of humor that some could find entertaining depending on how they view it.

After setting up a normal pattern, the plot begins to take place with the 21st paragraph; "In this very attitude did I sit when I called to him, rapidly stating what it was I wanted him to do—namely, to examine a small paper with me. Imagine my surprise, nay, my consternation, when without moving from his privacy, Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied, 'I would prefer not to.' "(3:Melville) Here the pattern is disrupted for the first time but is only looked at with brief concern from the narrator. This brings about the human mind to associate his lack of participation with other things such as a bad day in personal life or simple health issues. The narrator lets it slide after taking in other's opinions then continues on with life with not enough curiosity to pressure the matter. However to the viewer this is obviously not the end of the story so we are left with a stronger curiosity. As the plot quickens on leaving Bartleby to crease doing things one by one disturbing routine with a larger gap, other employees start to agree that he should be left off leaving the narrator with the responsibility. But because of his higher status and need to 'protect and govern' the employees he hires he can only empathize just as the readers do. This also brings about many questions such as Bartleby's past or current situation that might be leaving him to stop activities. Levels of curiosity rise faster moving the plot along. Things of his life are found like when he was sleeping in the office rather than at home, never really leaving to go out to eat even when he had the money, etc… 

Even when he was asked to leave he would not only to make one want to attempt to befriend and ask on what was affecting his life. Sadly when the narrator tries to befriend it's clear that there is hesitation to do so because many people tend to gain negative feed back-- such as suspicion and distrust-- from another when wanting a friendship mainly based on curiosity and the need for information. I found it wise that the narrator only asked a few times before eventually letting off the subject and offering choices to Bartley by such as extra money as a donation and asking him politely to leave within a time period. This sign of empathy through affection was most genuine and would probably gotten positive feed back if Bartleby was more emotional. Bartleby seemed to have lost emotion and became empty from something in his life or a simple thought.

The story ends with Bartleby's death after being arrested for staying on property when the company moved. When the company moved there was only one emotion that Bartleby held which was anger towards the narrator believing that he had sent him behind bars. That emotion was short lived and soon he went back to his emotionless self. I conclude that the only sign of emotion was towards the fact he did not want to move and did not want to have things change around him. Some people could say he had Metathesiophobia(4) which is the fear of change, this phobia has a symptom of a lack of will to live but doesn't completely fit with the other symptoms ,such as panic, with his behavior. 

Everything that a reader might thing or analyze about the reading would dissolve once they find out that Bartleby died. The last few lines from 245 to 249 give the last question if he was sleeping.  “With kings and counsellors…" was last said leaving the audience with a emotional ending of simple death. All the questions would now never be answered. Yet the death was in some type of dramatic beauty that allows it all to be okay without answers. A sort of peace.

Overall I found the writing very well done but it a true story or not. The ending was well done and so was the rest such as setting up a stage and background with the majority of the characters. I found it rather lovely, although tragic, the death sounded

 peaceful. 

reference: 

1: Bigelow Lisa, Demanded Media. Web: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/adult-behavior-patterns-workplace-12249.html

2: Peer Power, Net Speed Learning Solutions. Web: http://www.netspeedlearning.com/peerpower/behaviors/

3: Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street, Herman Melvill. 1853. web: http://www.bartleby.com/129/

4: Wikipedia. Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Metathesiophobia

Bartleby, the Scrivener

In the writings of Bartleby, the Scrivener I would have to say that the most important phrase said through out the later half of the story is "I would prefer not to". Although it is a line that is most used and can be considered a cliche line to select for its importance, this line becomes the most significant line that I can point out and also has become the most popular sentence.

The main reason why I chose this line was because of it's importance to spark the curiosity of the narrator.  Curiosity is a thing that everyone has more than once in their life and especially at birth, its what drives our desire to learn which in turn helps us to survive on this mysterious planet. Bartleby was constantly asked questions after he began to say this phrase and thus it helped continue the plot. If he did not say this more than once then the plot would cease and there would be no story to read.

The answer "I would prefer not to," sparked the interest in the narrator in the beginning and continued to harnest that spark into a flame leaving us all in question and in a unsatisfied curiosity.  More questions were asked such as 'what was Bartleby's past' and many others. The only real information we later get out of Bartleby is the fact he did not want anything to change, which meant something in his life got to the point he found it perfect leading him to say these words. Although what was perfect and why the simplest tasks seemed to effect that perfection are only known to Bartleby which measly drove me insane with curiosity. Alas it drove him to his death leaving us all without knowing what it was that drove him to say "I would prefer not to."

Image source: [link]

Small video on curiosity: [link] 

Summary VS Analysis

If you have issues seeing the text a larger image is available here: [link]

I'm the artist.

"A Modest Proposal."

Dr. Jonathan Swift's proposal identifies one of the problems in his society which was the unwanted children of the poor. He points out the beggars who would have many children behind them looking for food, money, etc. Swift suggests a way to fix the problem of the population growth and the poor which is to sell the children off, feed them to a certain age then eat them. I don't really know if he was being serious or not, but because of his research and how he empathizes with the audience about people on the streets suggest that he was indeed serious. 

I would have to agree that his solution does indeed sound logical. His evidence of growing population, the way he calculated the numbers of children 'breeders' make and even how he pointed out a 'season' for when the most children were born. All of this support his solution greatly. Even if you add in todays population and the current resources being put to waste instead of being recycled his solution would be supported even more. However, because of culture and religion people will and probably will continue to not accept this proposal because of the value humans have on other human life (except in war).

I refer you to the novel "The Time Machine", written by H.G. Wells. In this novel/movie the future holds two different species of humans where one herd the other like cattle and eat them. I only mention this because culture can change towards Swifts proposal, but not within our life time.

More on The Time Machine:  [Link]

Image source: [Link]

How many babies are born in a day?

Good Readers Good Writers.

Vladimir Nabokov believes that a good reader must be imaginative, artistic sense, a dictionary and memory. I would have to agree with Nabokov's ideal reader, imagination is a important role to reading, without it one could not visualize what they read properly or be able to keep interest. An artistic sense would bring along appreciation along with visualization. Memory is obviously useful and a dictionary never hurts to have when reading. The only other thing I would add is that a good reader prepares themselves for a book. I often find preparation is a good idea, it gets on in the mood and can make reading more enjoyable.

I find myself a good reader if I enjoy the book. When ever I felt like reading I would go to a library and rent out five books at a time to only find two of them are interesting enough to read. After finding the book(s) I wanted to read there would always be some slight problem with location. Although so people often go to loud crowded places to read I find reading at home in a silent environment with light background sounds more enjoyable. Before when I was younger I was able to block out every sound possible when reading, today I cannot do that anymore so it effects my reading.

Here are a few places a reader has found comportable: Link



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