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“Bloodchild” continued...

The aliens made deals with the human family’s that one of the offspring would have to be given to the host alien for reproduction purposes. If you were groomed by aliens, you would have complete understanding and commitment to their society. The aliens are clearly stronger than the humans with long tails that can sting you and put you to sleep. A past war occurred between humans and Aliens, before male and female humans were put together and forced to reproduce. In modern times humans are allowed to have families with whoever they chose to. The truth and the whole process of giving birth to an Alien is gruesome and very painful. With more teachings of the process of the birth done on males from a young age it would become more normalized. #133words

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“Bloodchild”

Humans living on a different planet allowed to reproduce themselves and have their own family seems pretty normal and not so bad at first. No way to get back to earth? What happen to earth; probably pollution forced humans out in search for a healthier planet so then we will eventually destroy it like we did with earth. We humans take earth for granted. We don’t appreciate or respect our earth. We could end up in a planet where male become host incubation bodies for aliens. This story raises a lot of opinions from the boys in the class because they don’t agree with the possibility of being in that position, it is not in their nature. The aliens took advantage of the new the new human raise that now populates their planet. Each alien is assigned one family as caregiver. The aliens give them eggs to eat. The eggs prolong life. The main characters mother rarely eats them because she does not want to live in this new society for much longer. The mother knows the real truth about the aliens. The alien looks like giant bug of some sort. It is possible to develop a friendship with these aliens. #201words

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“The Darling "continued...

Olanka was intoxicated with her love for others so much so that she didn’t have opinions or thoughts of her own. Even Olankas old beliefs went out the door once she married Vasichka her new husband. She does not care about the theatre no more all she cares about is work at the lumberyard. Olanka has some bad luck with relationships they all eventually die or leave when they are tired of her. She chooses to live in this unhealthy way. She does not learn from her mistakes. Olenka is way to clingy. Olenka will always be disappointed. She relies to much on other people to make her dreams come true. #111words

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“The Darling”

I related so much to this story because my first relationship was very toxic, I found myself not focusing on my own passions. With time I learned that having your own passions is way more attractive than just following the other partner with everything. This story’s mood is very sad and depressing. I think it is fine and healthy to work on projects with your partner and lean from each other, but when it becomes a certain everyday job and you both are together 24/7 conflict is bound to happen. It is amazing how much you can let another person influence you, for example if your partner has a particular taste in music you will start to listen to those songs on your own even if you do not like them you still want to have as many connections as possible with your person. It can become exhausting to live in another’s persons shoes for long periods of time. Olenka need to learn how to love herself. Most women really believe they need a man in their lives and in my opinion and how I was raised you don’t. It is healthy for women to treat themselves and have their own me time. #200words

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The Lottery Discussion

Before reading the story, The Lottery, the title makes you think this is going to be a story about a good and positive situation that perhaps has someone striking some insane luck by winning the lottery. It also gives you a feeling that this person may be set for life or even have nothing to worry about ever again… After reading the story, the assumptions being made prior could not have been any more wrong. This was no story of positivity or good luck. This was no story of someone winning the lottery that gives you millions of dollars. The person in fact did win a lottery, but it was a lottery that was to win the right to die… The lottery was a tradition that was carried on because people knew no better. They blindly followed this vile and terrible tradition because it was just that, a tradition. This brings about the discussion on whether people will just do things because its something others are doing. Just like the people during the holocaust that followed Hitler’s rule just because they thought it was the right thing to do. Anyways, the story was a lottery to win the right to be stoned in the middle of all the town’s people. Sounds exciting to me. People were even bragging how many years they survived being selected.

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Boys Go To Jupiter Discussion

The story as a whole was a little rough to keep up with. It seemed to jump back and forth which confused me as to who was doing what at some points. The rhyme in itself reminds me of when I was younger because that was said all the time. In the story, the girl Claire was a pretty normal kid until her mom died. A lot of other events like her boyfriend posting the picture of her, and her dad marrying again so early caused her to rebel in a way. I believe she knew the history of the confederate flag and used it as a tool of rebellion as well to get a reaction. I can understand her position to want to act out in rebellion because she has gone through a lot, but you have to pick and choose your battles and be a little smarter in the way you portray yourself.

Claire also goes to a very diverse school and she needs to realize that everyone has their own opinions and beliefs. What she did offended some of the people at the school and she should have been more careful choosing how she rebelled in her situation. I also believe that she acts crudely because she doesn't fear the consequences because they are all soft and not to be feared. 

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Why the Novel Matters... continued

I still don’t understand who or what is “man alive”. I find it funny and kind of agree with the Autor and how he thinks that philosophers only care about thoughts. The Author is very passionate about himself as a whole not just bits of himself. The Author Feels superior to the other concentrations because they only focus on bits and pieces of one person. As a novelist the author is able to help people grow with many different stories and topics not just one thing in one direction. The Author talks about love and how it is changing, so books are always different never the same stories therefore novelist can display love and interest to people that read. This short story made me appreciate novelist more. #127 words

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Reading about gender roles and expectations for a man compared to a woman is always an interesting and not always true situation. Most people want to say that men have to do specific things and that women have to do the opposite. The societal view seems to be that men do dirty hard work while the women aren’t allowed to because they need to stay clean and pretty. 

I disagree with this completely. Men and women should be able to choose what they want to do because they have the free will to do so. Women should not be held back by society any longer just because that is how it has been in the past. 

The best thing about men and women in the world is that we compliment each other. All men are different. All women are different. When the right two people meet and fall in love they will compliment each other in a way that everything that needs to be done will be done together. There are no expected gender roles because they want to help each other grow.

Differences in Gender Roles

This novel is composed of seven stories, and each one remarks on broad relations between the two genders. The stories try to explain why men and women do not understand each other, how woman do feminine things while men do masculine things, how each gender is mysterious and shadowy of the other, and that each gender has their own interpretation of ideas and act on them differently. 

Women are known to be great communicators and feel the constant need to explain themselves in full detail, unlike men who are very straight forward with very little to say. Our unknown differences and ideas of gender causes confusion when we dwell in the ideas of ambiguity and bivalence. It is believed that everyone operates under the same control system in regard to our wants, needs, or desires. On the other hand, some people believe that they are controlled and limited when it comes to their actions, when in reality, they are more complex than they lead on to be. Men value 3D space and women value written words. Women always want an explanation and love to know why everything is the way that it is. Women have hormones that are to blame for the extreme emotions, issues about self-confidence, and their purpose. Women can be very gullible and always see the best in people while men know white from black without any hesitation. Different people have different values depending on how they are raised, and it also reflects on their drive in the future. Masculinity is seen as a construction and creates a label for itself in regard to male properties. You should never put anything past anyone because life has a funny way of forcing you to face yourself and your problems. There is no way around confronting you life and your personal mystery. 

As a reader, we are able to know more than the character does; they only know what they know in the moment while we are able to see the whole perspective all at once. The characters of a story depend on our perspectives to crack their codes and experience their missions. Some stories purposefully do not provide us with the answers, so they are looking for us to take the concepts from the text and universally unpack them. In the second story, the husband thinks that he understands how the world works, he thinks he understands how people work, so he is confused as to why his wife is acting out of her normal character. The husband said that he was an actor and claims that he can leave his body, but he can’t ever return the same. The husband was his own mystery to solve. The husband has an ability to get into the heads of others and portray their thoughts, but he cannot do it for his wife no matter how hard he tries. The husband tries to evaluate the man that his wife is dating and assesses him in the way that his wife does so that he could finally start to figure her out. There is a belief that gender is a performance due to each one having inheritable traits according to society. We are considered adults for having the ability to consume and grapple with complex literature like this piece. We are mature enough to engage in concepts that we never thought were possible.

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This is a very interesting and true representation of the difference between higher and lower class people. It is, in my opinion, sad to see that just based off of economic wealth that people are stereotyped into a sort of standing in other’s eyes. This is basically like judging a book by its cover. No one wants to be judged as something that they aren’t just because they aren’t financially wealthy. Body language in itself is a big teller of how someone feels and expresses themselves. 

The image shown is very bold. It seems to me as if the higher class man is very tall in stature and is of upmost importance as he holds himself high. The lower class man is short and is slouched a bit. This is one way people classify people by body language compared to economic status.

Body Language

Having high class body language versus low class body language or vice versa is a determining factor of how open or close minded someone is. These two different body languages aid in ranking people by their economical status. People with high class have insane expectations and feel superior to the people around them. Their feeling of superiority provides confidence in the way they do things and give them an idea that they could never stoop down to anyone else’s level. 

People with low class have reasonable expectations and feel like they are equal, give or take, to the people around them. Their feeling of equality installs a sense of stability in their personality which allows them to understand that they are no better than anyone else. How you portray yourself to people at first glance provides inefficient answers to all questions that you may have. The way that you present yourself initially gives an idea to others around you how you should be approached and or treated. For example, there are certain jobs that have certain expectations that have to be fulfilled in order to get respected. Rules are unofficially said for when people set a mood whether the given instructions are strict or broad.

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Barn Burning Discussion

When i was reading Barn Burning by William Faulkner I thought I was following along pretty well with how the story was going at first. Then, as the story progressed, I started to question myself as to what was actually going on. I don't know about how anyone else felt about the story, but I thought it became confusing and kind of jumped around a bit. What I did understand was that the son was basically asked to testify against his father in the barn burning situation. This is where the boy, Sartoris, is positioned into a difficult decision of whether to obey the law or his father, Abner. Abner kind of coerces Sartoris onto his side by basically telling him that if he doesn't obey him, then he would find himself alone. Abner warns Sarty that he has to stick to his own kind and his own blood. Also, he needs to stick to the typical ways, that of his sharecropper lifestyle and his barn burning father. While Sarty's brother seems to be very much like his father, Sarty has a depth of feeling and understanding at ten years old that his father doesn't possess. It is absurd to think that 10-year-old Sarty has more maturity in these situations than his father. This proves the bad influence that Sarty is being led by. My reaction to this was that I would probably help my family out rather than rat them out. This is probably because my relationship with my family is much different than Sartoris and Abner. After this, things become escalated and all over the place. In the end, I am left questioning what happens to Abner and Sartoris because everything seems so cloudy. 

After reading the article, Character and Symbol in Barn Burning, by Karl F. Zender, I am a little more focused as to what was going on, but still not entirely sure what happens at the end and how things will turn out. The article makes it into a protagonist and antagonist situation where Sartoris is the good guy and Abner is the bad guy. Abner is a jealous and angry person, clearly.. He goes as far as trying to control everything that everyone around him is doing to the point where it is difficult for Sartoris to think for himself. According to the article, along with my own knowledge now to the story, it is clear that Sartoris wants to break free and be his own person. His father is holding him back. The fact that the father was a war hero was also discussed. Should he get a pass for acting like this? In my opinion, no he doesn't get a pass to act like that towards his own son. I don't know what is going on in his mind though, and I am not in a position to judge another. Overall, the article cleared up some things, but such a cloudy story in the first place is still difficult to pull every piece together. 

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Prep Discussion

First of all, as some of the other guys in the class have said, I don't really relate to the first couple chapters of this book so far. I believe that I know people that are this image of a preppy school girl because I went to a Catholic private high school and there were plenty of "preppy" girls at the school. Obviously, it will be a tad bit different because the school in this story is a boarding school. The girl named Lee seems to be down about the fact that her family isn't as well off as some of the other people's families. My reaction to this is that if you are at the school in the first place then you should feel as if you are somewhat equal to the other people there and to not feel bad about the fact that your family isn't the exact same as everyone on a monetary stage. Also, I find the question about Lee's sexuality to be interesting. She has a tense feeling when she sees some girls and guys, so I am not sure where she resides on the sexuality scale. She may just be showing admiration or a sort of desire to be like some people, or she may feel attracted to them. I am not entirely sure. 

Getting into the second chapter of the book, it is sad to see that Lee is struggling to make friends because no one deserves to be friendless in school or in life in general. People need to give her a chance, but obviously as a reader on the outside there isn't anything, I can do to change that. She tends to isolate herself as a person because she tries to be as different and opposed to the people around her as possible. Another big question to her sexuality arises when she picks up the "Am I Gay?" pamphlet, but this precedes the meeting between her and a boy she seems to like, so once again that situation is fuzzy. On a note about the novel's first 2 chapters as a whole, I don't particularly enjoy the book so far because it just doesn't spark my interest. I can try to give it a chance though because it shows new perspectives on a "foreign" type of situation. 

After reading the article, What is Cultural Capital? Do I Have It?, I realized that the confusing topic that we were discussing in class isn't so foreign after all. I didn't recognize the topic name but do recognize some of the ideas presented in this article. The author of the article describes cultural capital as "the accumulation of knowledge, behaviors, and skills that one can tap into to demonstrate one's cultural competence...". This deals with the way someone will react in a situation to show that they have knowledge in a particular area to prove their societal standing and class. The article goes on to say that everyone has cultural capital and we deploy it daily. The concept of cultural capital can be applied to the book we are reading, Prep. In this book there is a massive overarching theme of societal class, well-being, and trying to prove your worth to the people around you. 

In relating the article and cultural capital to the third and fourth chapter of Prep, it is apparent that Lee struggles to break free from this idea of having to prove herself as someone she isn't in order to appease the people around her. She feels like that her cultural capital must be manipulated in a certain way to fit in with the girls who have families that are more well off and of higher standing. Lee was so used to being the best of the best at her old school, that this new environment where she is struggling is taking a toll on how she sees herself. Overall, I still don't necessarily connect with this story very well because it just doesn't spark my interest. I am trying to keep an open mind when reading in order to learn about different situations. 

Based off what I read, in chapter 5 Lee sees her parents when they come to visit for parent weekend, and she acted more like her normal self because she feels comfortable around her parents. Even though she is being more "normal", she acted like a complete brat and was pretty rude to them. It’s really crazy to see her drastic difference in mentality and behavior when she is at school typically to how she was with her parents. I think lee had major anxiety about them being there though because they are obviously not as high up in status as the other kid’s parents at the school. In chapter 6, the story became a little deeper than what has been occurring so far. Lee's friend overdosed on pills and committed suicide. Lee has some feelings for the new character Dave. Chapter 6 as a whole was kind of a shock because i didn't expect the suicide and dark twist.

I am not entirely sure where the story is going, but after seeing the dark twist in chapter 6 I think the story is going to have some redeeming quality to pull it out the low dark place it ventured to. It seems like Lee's goal is to fit in, but she is struggling. Lee being insecure is a road block for her goal of fitting in. Also, her always being worried about her status and class standing doesn't help either. I think something big and unexpected will occur soon to show us exactly where Lee is heading and how she will manage to survive in this difficult school environment. 

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I would just like to start by complimenting you sentence toward the beginning of this post, “Many of the things people take for granted in life stem from having a partner that compliments you in a way where you feed off of each other’s greatness”, because it is so true. Whenever I was reading these stories, I felt sad to an extent, but more so interested in the different flaws to know how to keep my relationship stable and healthy in the future. I agree that happiness is very important because it is the key motivator for success and the lack of happiness is usually the key motivator for failure. I like how you briefly summarized the first story but explained enough in detail for me to know exactly what happened. Your ending really impressed me when you straight up admitted that you think men are not complete without women, and I agree because your opposite is what makes you together a whole.

Men Without Women

The book “Men Without Women” by Haruki Murakami poses an interesting look into how life without a woman can really be. In a lot of the stories in this book, a man has either lost his partner in someway or is without a partner. I believe the story can be used to think about life in a different way. Many of the things people take for granted in life stem from having a partner that compliments you in a way where you feed off of each other’s greatness.

Most of the stories made me feel sad and almost like I was in the story living in the moment. I wouldn’t want to imagine being in those situations. It makes you appreciate all the people around you and not take them for granted. These are the type of stories that make you evaluate everything you have done the past week. You begin to ask yourself whether you appreciated your mom or your dad. It makes you wonder whether you are enough even when you give all of yourself to your significant other. No one wants to go through the terrible events of life that sometimes occur, but you never know when it will occur or who it will occur to. The only thing we can do is focus on ourselves and how we portray our gifts and talents in a way that is beneficial to those we care about.

A very interesting aspect of the story is how elusive and exclusive happiness seems to be. Happiness is something that is created or destroyed by your own drive and desires for success in life. Success makes people happy. Failure does not. That’s just how things work.

In the first story, where the man who is an actor loses his wife to another man, the man seeks out his wife’s lover to see what he is like. He had a desire to know what his wife thought that he was lacking. This curiosity and feeling of hopelessness are profound in today’s world. People who give their all to others and still get hurt in the end always wonder what it is that they are lacking. It is a struggle to understand the concept that it may have nothing to do with them, that it is solely the person who is cheating. The reality is that the cheater will not even feel the need to explain themselves and this will be hard on the other person because they just want a reason.

On another level of thought, this book just reconfirms my preexisting notion that men can not live without women. This is just my opinion, but a man without a woman is not complete. It may seem silly, but a man and a woman complement each other. Although not all people find their match in the world, human interaction in itself is very important for the health and mental well being of people.

Overall, this book is bringing alive a very important message about how men need women.

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I agree with your thoughts about the narrator seeing Sonny's addiction as sadness and making it symbolic in his life. You are also correct when you say that Sonny is physically free but may or may not be mentally free. This story does in fact resemble lightness versus darkness. I was never able to match light with his warmth and innocence, but I was able to match darkness with his drug addiction and prison sentence. I think it is interesting that you were also able to notice the family obligation throughout the story because that could have been what caused a lot of his instability. I totally agree that family obligations can set you back because you are spending more time and energy on someone else instead of yourself. I agree that it is frustrating and unfair, but it also shows someone’s kind heart and selflessness toward other people.

Sonny’s Blues

The story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin presents some interesting themes. “Yet, when he smiled, when we shook hands, the baby brother I’d never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light.” The narrator is seeing that Sonny has emerged from prison after his rough time with his heroin addiction. He may be physically free, but the narrator does not know whether Sonny is mentally free from his darkness of addiction and sadness. This brings about the symbolism of light versus dark. The light represents all that is good and a sort of innocence or warmth. The darkness is the opposite and can be mainly focused on Sonny’s drug addiction and prison sentence. There is a sort of family obligation going on in this story. The narrator feels obligated to take care and make sure his brother, who is now out of prison and off of drugs, makes it in life. This family obligation can be hard on people sometimes because it begins to become a nuisance in a sense that you feel like you are spending more time and energy on someone else, than you are on yourself. This becomes frustrating and kind of unfair. I can feel the tension in the narrator’s life. He is uncomfortable and having a difficult time with the fact that this is now on his shoulders.

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Barn Burning

When Sarty’s father tells him, “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you”, he is practically asking Sarty if he thinks that a covenant comes before family. This image is showing us Sarty and his father starting a fire together in the middle of the woods. Sarty ended up chosing covenant over family in the end and told on his father, but I think that putting his self-preservation first was the right thing to do in this situation. Sarty felt like his father was putting Sarty and the rest of the family in danger.

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Private School Girls

These are girls that attend a private school. I do not know these girls on a personal level, but I do know the atmosphere they dwell in daily on a personal level. These girls appear to be happy to see one another, but I can already sense that the smiles are fake. From my prior experience in a private school setting, not everyone is genuine or nice, but you have to pretend to be okay with whatever is going on around you in order to get by. The smiles just seem forced in my opinion, and since I am currently reading Prep, I can somewhat see straight through them.  

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Men Without Women

All of the short stories that make up this novel could be read literally and metaphorically. The husband in this story is running from his emotional crisis with his wife because he is in denial and trying to avoid the reality of the situation at hand. It matters where a story begins and ends, the amount of time you give to one topic and not the other, and the amount of detail provided to one idea and not the other. With that being said, the story begins this way because he gives us his side of the story and emotionally pulling our strings that everything going wrong was his wife’s fault. This story is initially presented to the readers as a one-way story. The husband is passive with his wife after he saw her cheating because he was dissociated due to his denial. 

When he was younger, he was a runner and got hurt running, so he had to give up his passion which was a future career in professional running. With that being said, he has prior experience of being detached from something that was very important to him. He is depressed that running was taken away from him and feels as though nothing would ever be worthy of his passion again. He may have never be fully passionate about his wife in the sense that she could potentially be removed from his life at any time. Running becomes a metaphor in his life and we have no idea what he is running from, giving us an uncertainty as to where this story fits into this collection.

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Body Language

Having high class body language versus low class body language or vice versa is a determining factor of how open or close minded someone is. These two different body languages aid in ranking people by their economical status. People with high class have insane expectations and feel superior to the people around them. Their feeling of superiority provides confidence in the way they do things and give them an idea that they could never stoop down to anyone else’s level. 

People with low class have reasonable expectations and feel like they are equal, give or take, to the people around them. Their feeling of equality installs a sense of stability in their personality which allows them to understand that they are no better than anyone else. How you portray yourself to people at first glance provides inefficient answers to all questions that you may have. The way that you present yourself initially gives an idea to others around you how you should be approached and or treated. For example, there are certain jobs that have certain expectations that have to be fulfilled in order to get respected. Rules are unofficially said for when people set a mood whether the given instructions are strict or broad.