Give Me Something To Blog About :)

Yes, sorry, I had to do at least one Buffy reference this semester :) Angela's post inspired me to write a more reflective post that incorporates things I've learned all semester. We've read a lot of really great classics from Pride & Prejudice to The Sun Also Rises--texts some of us love and hate for various reasons--as well as shorter stories like "A New England Nun," Trifles, and "The Yellow Wall-paper." And Dr. H was right in class the other day when she said that she thought I liked everything we had read. Honestly, I think the only text I've absolutely hated with a passion was when I was forced to read The Hobbit in 7th grade...no offense to any hobbit-lovers out there. But I did find something valuable in everything...

- Oscar Wao will stick with me for a while. It was one of the saddest texts I've read, but I could definitely identify with his loneliness. The scene I keep coming back to--besides his death scene--was when he created the after school Sci-Fi club to get students involved with his interests...and no one showed up. It was heart-breaking to me that even the "nerdy" kids didn't want to engage with him. But on a deeper level, Oscar Wao was a great novel about cultural diversity and heritage that gives a different perspective into someone else's world and the struggles they face.

- The Awakening is something I will definitely read again. I liked Edna because she was trying to fight back against the norms of society, a world where women were shadows of their husbands and were identified by his last name. No, I don't agree with all of the decisions that she made about herself and her children, but I don't think she was a terrible mother--I've seen much worse. Having the privilege and prestige of a nanny, she simply didn't know how to fit them into her life because perhaps she never felt like a mother. However, I do recognize that her abilities as a mother could have been exercised more along with her ambitions of becoming independent.

All of the shorter works we've read in class, I have really enjoyed as well. I had never read Mary Wilkins Freeman before, nor Charlotte Perkins Gilman, two authors I have now added to my favorites list. Overall, I am able to easily distinguish masculine characteristics from feminine characteristics, and how they compell each other. Any time I think of such a debate, my mind automatically goes back to the old sporting event commercials that were popular in the 90's (Women athletes to male athletes: "Anything you can do, I can do better, I can do anything better than you.") Now imagine that saying applied to feminist writers back in the day against their masculinist critics--for any feminist, that should put a smile on your face :)