Robert Frost

Robert Frost was a writer that interested me. He not only brought forth his own style of writing, but also brought his readers into his stories. His hidden secrets of personification and other elements like in his poem "The Silken Tent" really showed his creativity that some writers didn't use. Growing up with hard times like many other writers in his era, Frost never let things bother him as his work expressed most of his feelings. He wasn't a crazy person and didn't seem to scare many readers away like some of the writers did. He expressed family a lot in his work going back to his poem "The Silken Tent" he used personification to talk about his mother and protection he felt from her like a silken tent. Being one that didn't understand poems very well, Frost helped me find a different type of meaning in poetry and give me interest in his work.

Response On The Class

Before entering English 102 I honestly didn't no what to expect. Like many others English 101 didn't really steer me in the direction that caught my interest. Entering Farmingdale as a freshman and having previous success in English classes in the past I believed it wasn't going to be as hard as I thought. Although having success in English, it never really stuck with me due to my lack of wanting to read. I never liked reading as a child and even after taking this class I still don't find reading as a hobby of mine. I have picked up a lot from this English 102 class though by finding out how to identify different types of elements in stories and also go a step further into writers work to truly understand their message being put across. One thing I would change in this class would be to not have it as much as a lecture class, but more as a class to interact and find my other classmates opinions as well as expressing my own. I feel as though lectures on different types of writers and stories throw students off from the real meaning of what the professors are trying to teach their students. Overall, I did enjoy taking English 102 and it was an experience that really helped me become more educated.

Response #3 - Greek Tragedy

Greek tragedy was another favorite of mine because of the way it was spoken. Greek tragedy was performed live and for me that was easier for me to understand and picture the main theme of the play. I took a sense of understanding and concentration from Greek tragedy, meaning I enjoyed having the play acted out in front of me giving me the imagery I needed to understand the true meaning of the play. Emotions were expressed easier and gave their audience a feel at which they were in the play with them. Oedipus the King was a great Greek tragedy that by using the characters own emotions and acting helped bring readers into the story and back into a time where there was an ruler that everyone either loved or hated.

Response #2 - Romanticism

Romanticism was a different type of event in history where writers used their emotions in order to create a piece of art. Romanticism in poetry has been used for years beyond where writers had their own choices to pick which emotion they wanted to go by throughout their work. Some features of romanticism in poetry was:

• Emotion over reason
• sensory experience before intellect
• Imagination to the road of experience and spiritual truth
• The human personality

These features all use a different type of romanticism in order to express a type of story the writer is trying to express. Romanticism to me really interested me due to it is based off of true emotion. I enjoy using different types of emotions when writing in order to bring my own readers into a different world where they can picture it in their minds. 

Response #1 - Symbolism in Poetry

Symbolism in poetry enables the writer to convey images directly to the mind of the reader - it serves almost like an emotional short-cut. A symbol works two ways: It is something itself, and it also suggests something deeper. Symbolism in poetry gave me a different look on the types of symbolic elements that all poets use in their work. Robert Frost was a strong believer of symbolism in his work and used it in mainly all of his poems. His personification, metaphors and similes weren't always announced throughout his poems but analysing his work a step further showed his ways of using them. Symbolism to me really gave me a different outlook on poetry and how to use different types of literary elements to bring the readers to whatever world you wanted to bring them in. 

Facts About Robert Frost

• Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. 
• When Frost was two years old, his mother fled to Lawrence, Massachusetts, to get away from her husband, who was a drunk. 
• She stayed there until her second baby was born, Jeannie, Robert's sister. 
• Then they went back to San Francisco. 
• A few years later, Robert's father died, so they took the body to Lawrence to be buried in the family cemetery. 
• By the time he was 11, Robert Frost had crossed the U.S. three times.
• He married Elinor White and had 2 kids. 
• Robert never in truth had any jobs, except being a poet, but he published many poems in his lifetime. Some of them are: The Road not Taken, The Raft of Flowers, The Pasture, and others. 
• Robert also won four Pultizer awards and read The Gift Outright at the inauguration of John. F. Kennedy. 
• He died on January 29, 1963 of a heart attack. He was 88 years old.

Biography of Robert Frost


Robert Frost's Poems

Essay #2

Thomas Rydzewski

Professor Candia

English 102

March 7, 2012

            Poets use their strong grammar and creative minds in order to convey their readers to understand what hides behind the stories they create. Within every piece of poetry there is always an untold story that lies behind its original figure just waiting to be discovered. A great piece of poetry that tells an untold story is “To See a World in a Grain of Sand” by William Blake. This poem really was able to capture the meaning of a creative and inspirational writer that was able to write very little in this poem, but mean so much more. His strong grammar in his poems really captures the reader’s eyes into finding out his untold mystery.

            To begin, William Blake used his own creativity in order to express his huge meaning of his poem in such little amounts of words. In the very first line of his poem “To see a world in a grain of sand” (1), Blake used a metaphor by comparing the world to a grain of sand. Blake was using this metaphor to create the image in a readers mind that the world is similar to a grain of sand due to its round and rocky shape. Also the image of how unpredictable both the world and a grain of sand really is because you never big or small the two of them could be. Right from the beginning Blake uses a literary term in his poem in order to instantly grab the reader and bring him into the story Blake wants to tell. The imagery Blake uses throughout this piece of work really shows his strong creativity and unique character.

            Another amazing line from William Blake’s poem “And a heaven in a wild flower” (2) really expressed his second type of metaphor. He used the same type of literary term in order to make the similarity towards heaven and a wild flower. Blake used the two in order to build off of his first line and create yet another image in the reader’s mind that a wild flower, being unpredictable and all different shapes and colors, could define what heaven could possibly be like. No one understands heaven or could describe it to anyway and that’s why Blake compares the two being so unpredictable and mysterious in their own specific way. Blake tries to give an image to the reader of both heaven and earth and how they can both be metaphorically similar to certain everyday things. Blake tries to convince his readers that the biggest things can have the smallest meaning when the smallest things can have the biggest meaning.

            Yet another line from William Blake’s poem “Hold infinity in the palm of your hand” (3) really sets a different mood in his story. Blake sets an image for the readers to think about being able to hold infinity, virtually holding the world in the palm of your hand. It’s almost as if his metaphor here is giving the readers the opportunity to become god himself and also bring you back to the previous two lines and get you to put all his untold pieces together like a puzzle.

            Finally the last piece of William Blake’s poem showed his strong grammar skills and his creative way to bring the reader into his story and make them think. The final line of his short but meaningful poem really put the whole story together, “And eternity in an hour.” (4) This ending line helped set up his previous lines in his poem to finish his untold story. This whole poem together grabbed the reader into thinking more than just sand, wild flowers, and the world around it but brought everything together to make it whole. Blake used his metaphors in order to show the readers that the largest things in the world could have the smallest meaning and the smallest things in the world could have the largest meanings.

            In this poem “To see a World in a Grain of Sand” by William Blake he was able to create through literary terms of simply metaphors that the world is too big to fit in the palm of someone’s hands and a person cannot control everything. Blake’s untold story was hidden behind his poem and without his grabbers that brought the readers into his work; no one would be able to understand his poems just like many writers and their poems as well. William Blake wrote this particular poem to convey his readers that having too much on your plate isn’t good and having just enough to handle to and be able to swallow is better for you to understand. All poetry serves its own purpose to tell different messages to their readers. 

Essay #1

Thomas Rydzewski

Professor Candia

English 102

February 13, 2012

            Writers from every era have used all types of literary terms in order to develop characterization within their stories. Literary terms such as theme, setting and conflicts between characters help in developing characterization in a writers stories such as " A&P " by John Updike and " A Rose for Emily " by William Faulkner. Writers of all styles use literary terms in their stories in order to give the readers feeling and imagination to the story that they are reading. Writers have their own unique ways of introducing the readers to the story and also being able to keep the readers interested in what they are reading about.

            In " A&P " by John Updike he narrated his story through the eyes of the cashier at the local food store in town. Upon his choosing of making the cashier the narrator, Updike specifically described the setting within the story by describing the town itself and its townspeople living in it. This story takes place within a food store when three young teenagers walk into the store wearing nothing more then a bikini with short jeans on. Updike uses imagery in the beginning of his story in order to give the reader an image of the three teenagers as the walked into the store. For example, he says "She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs."(Updike) The big surprise about what these girls were wearing was the fact that their wasn't a beach around the town for miles so this was a new scene for many townspeople. The cashier (narrator) of the story didn't find what they were wearing to be much distracting and disrespectful in public but his manager thought otherwise. Upon paying for their items that the three teenagers wanted to purchase, the manager of the store rudely told the girls that their outfits were inappropriate and not aloud to be worn in the store. The manager then rudely kicked them out of the store. Updike then uses another literary term such as irony to yet again characterize the characters. "The girls, and who'd blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say "I quit" to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero."(Updike) The irony is that they don't hear him. The cashier then stood up for the girls surprising his boss and started talking down to his boss. He then not only gave his boss a good argument but after he quit right then and there trying to impress the girls by sticking up for them and showing up his boss. Updike used conflict within that scene of the story to characterize the true feelings of the characters and to give the readers a true look on the characters feelings and thoughts throughout the story. "I fold the apron, "Sammy" stitched in red on the pocket, and put it on the counter, and drop the bow tie on top of it."(Updike) The literary terms used throughout the story not only created more dramatic scenes but also helped the use of characterization in the story by describing the characters emotions and appearance.

            Another story that gave more literary terms that expressed characterization was " A Rose for Emily " by William Faulkner. This story took place in a good neighborhood. Unfortunately, there was always a mystery that came from the main character Emily's house. Emily was a normal girl that by the end of the story seemed to go mentally insane by killing her husband Homer. This story is narrated by the townspeople and their reactions towards Emily and her life. Faulkner used a lot of irony in this story in order to characterize Emily and her surprising personality that had the readers minds, as well as some of the other characters in the story, trying to figure out what was going to happen next. "She did not ask them to sit. She just stood in the door and listened quietly until the spokesman came to a stumbling halt"(Faulkner) The townspeople criticized Emily for not being social when they were the cause of her being anti-social. Similar to " A&P " by John Updike, Faulkner used internal conflict within the main character Emily herself to reflect in his characters by showing you in the story how Emily loses his sanity and shuts herself down from the world. "She was sick for a long time. When we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows--sort of tragic and serene."(Faulkner) The final piece of literary terms that were used was the setting itself that helps reflect on the characters in the story. Faulkner used setting to describe the house that Emily lived in and the dark and mysterious look to the house. "But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores."(Faulkner) This gave a good reflection on the characters and how they acted within the story.

            Writers have always brought different types of literary terms into their stories in order to reflect the characters they put into their work. By using terms such as theme, setting and conflict it gives the readers a true description of the story and how the characters are. By doing this the authors give the characters they create different types of traits that the readers could relate to or even find surprising after reading the book till its conclusion. Many writers use this method of writing in order to bring the readers interest into what they are reading and give them a vivd picture in their minds of whats taking place within the story. 

Blog Assignment #10 - A Doll's House

The play "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen is a very interesting story in my eyes. Although I am not into plays at all I did happen to catch myself in the pages of this piece of literature. The main characters that I believe brought the play to life was Nora and Torvald Helmer. Nora was known in the play as a nice and respectful woman who seemed to lose her sanity by the end of the play. Trovald worked at a bank that he enjoyed and was pleased working there. Nora created a big problem for herself by forging her fathers signature in order to take out a loan of a large some of money. This did nothing but put Nora into debt and force her to work at an incredible rate to try and pay off her debt. It seemed as though Nora always had a mental block on herself and also on the people around her trying to hide who she truly was. Nora became suicidal which she got out of later on in the play but still hid her bunched up emotions from everyone including Torvald. Also Nora believed that she wasn't herself in her marriage and was hiding who she truly was just to please Torvald. Also Nora hid a lot of things from Torvald as well such as a little thing like eating macaroons and then lying to him about it. Torvald is another character in the play that showed some type of security similar to Nora. The character Dr. Rank diagnoses Torvald with the fact that he cant face up to anything, that he should be sheltered from the realistic world. Also Torvald is very curious about what everyone around thinks of him. It also seemed as though that Torvald was a very self conscious man who didn't want anyone to give him disrespect. For example Torvald ended up firing Krogstad simply because Torvald believed Krogstad showed him no respect while working at the bank and despite Nora trying to convince Torvald to let Krogstad keep his job Torvald made his decision and fired him. Finally Torvald is really embarrassed by Nora forging her way to get the loan she wanted and didn't think too highly of her. He tried hiding from the humiliation of being involved in Nora's problems. The Helmer's try to maintain their "charmed" lives simply because they believed that they wanted what they wanted and there was no way around it. Torvald seemed to make most of the decisions when Nora really just wanted to be independent and ended up leaving both Torvald and her children to try and fulfill her destiny.

Blog Assignment #9 - Oedipus the King

Oedipus is an amazing piece of literature that really catches the readers eye. I personally have never found this type of writing interesting. Although I have my doubts about Oedipus, it is still a well written piece. It seems as though throughout the story Oedipus is constantly struggling and also stressed about something going on in his life. Oedipus I believe shows signs of grief and also disappointment towards himself for unintentionally killing his father. Due to Oedipus's suffering, I believed  that he learned that life simply isn't fair and that things are going to happen at different times and its how you react at the moment is what separates the weak from the strong. Oedipus showed signs of weakness by basically giving up everything he had due to his accidental mistake. People make mistakes all the time and in Oedipus's case it was a big mistake, but ruining your life due to that mistake doesn't solve your problem, if anything it made Oedipus's problems and emotions worse. From my own experiences with dealing with suffering and other emotions Ive learned to be a stronger person and to also take everything one step at a time. What many people tend to do now is rush threw life and try to make everything happen the way they want it to but in reality life is planned out for you already, you just need to be patient and wait for your shinning moment.





http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/GreekMyths/Oedipus/

Blog Assignment #8 - Reading or Watching a Play

I am not one to be a television fanatic but what did interest me while watching the television was the movie "Fast Five." This movie was released on April 29, 2010 adding a explosive attitude to the movie theatres. The movie was filmed in Puerto Rico where both characters Dominic and Brian move to after being on the top of the most wanted list in the United States. This movie brought action and excitement as the whole point of the movie was both the main characters stealing 100 million dollars from the biggest drug trafficing person in Rico. In this movie however its not only characters Dominic and Brian that are friends in the movie but everyone from the past movies are brought back into this movie to finish the job almost. All characters are friends accept Mia and Dominic who are brother and sister. Brian and Mia also have a relationship and were expecting a baby on the way out of all of the crazyness going on. The way this movie turns is when their way of stealing the money turns around and they lose their good friend Vince. Dominic then snaps and stops at nothing to steal the money and get out of Rico. The ending to the movie is when they do succeed at stealing the money by dragging a huge safe with their car threw the streets of Rio to get away. That obviously cant happen in real life but the ending really gave this movie an over the top rating. This movie for me is one of my favorite movies and showed alot of different scene changes along with surprising twists.



http://www.boomtron.com/2011/04/fast-five-movie-review/

Blog Assignment #7 - Langston Hughes

My Own Theme

I don't really understand,

how hard could something like this be?

I wake up everyday,

simply not knowing whats in store for me.

I take pride in what I put my mind to,

even though it might seem that I don't.

But even though I may seem happy,

the real me just cant seem to pull through.

We are all faced with problems everyday,

as we expect everything to simply just go our way.

But for me it doesn't come that simple,

for I am honestly fighting everyday.

I keep my head on my shoulders,

and always with my head held high.

But what you don't see is my constant struggle inside.

Yes, I may seem perfect but I can prove you wrong,

for within this life I live, it could be a total fraud.

What people don't know about me remains a secret,

for I am a closed book with ripped up pages.

I wait for the day where I can finally see you,

but until that day I will never really see this through.

I go to sleep tonight and still wonder why,

I cant seem to just let things go by.

But with the spirit of you in me,
 I am never alone as long as your with me.

Blog Assignment #6 - Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" I believe is such a well written poem that everyone over looks. Emily was a very depressing person and due to her depression her poems expressed her true feelings of lonelyness and sadness. In this particular poem Emily really put the the word death and herself and made them similar. An example such as "And I had put away/My labor and my leisure too,/For his civility" (6-8) really shows Emily's true depression towards life and herself. The quote from her poem really interpreted that she put her life on hold and stopped her own life meaning her labor and leisure for death itself. Emily used personification in order to to give death a different meaning, a meaning almost of a friendship between death and Emily herself. The very first lines of the poem also showed a prime example of Emily's life put into her own work. The lines "Because I could not stop for Death/He kindly stopped for me" (1-2) really put in sense that Emily had a relationship with death. Almost as if Emily was expecting death to come before her. The meaning of this quote really interpreted how death and depression was a part of Emily's life and that even though the time wasnt right for her, death had no problem giving her some time, almost like giving her time to say goodbye. Another quote "We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain/We passed the Setting Sun/Or rather-He passed Us" (11-13) really brought a sense of imagery and Emily's own life being told. This quote really meant that as Emily lived her life as a child where she used to play and have fun that death was always right next to her, watching her. A final example of Emily using her works of poetry to express her own life troubles is "Since then-'tis Centuries-and yet/Feels shorter than the Day" (21-22) that really represented that Emily's days seemed shorter then they used to be. She used that quote as an example to express that her years turned to months, months to weeks, and weeks to days. Emily used a metaphor to express immortality and death similar to each other. Emily's work was and still is amazing pieces of literature and her saddness and depression actually helped her create such amazing pieces of poetry.



http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/stop.html

Blog Assignment #5 - Symbolism in Poetry

In different works of poems, poets use their own type of symbolism to draw you into their stories. The poem "The Silken Tent" by Robert Frost I believe used symbolism in order to explain the true meaning of his poem but seems to use it secretly. The first time reading this poem, myself as well as others didn't really see what the true meaning of the poem was but analysing and really trying to bring yourself into the poem helps understand the meaning of the poem. In Frost's poem he uses personification as a symbol of love and respect towards a mother type figure, maybe even his own mother. His choice of vocabulary really brings at first a sense of confusion but then the true meaning of what he is trying to explain. "And its supporting central cedar pole,/That is its pinnacle to heavenward/And signifies the sureness of the soul." (5-7) These lines in his poem really help express the personification in his work. He uses his words such as "central cedar pole" as a strong and tight bound between his mother and also "pinnacle to heavenward" is used to express that no matter where he would be in the world she would be there to protect and comfort him. Also the line "Is of the slightest bondage made aware" (14) seems to represent the strong and unbreakable bond that both his mother and Frost share between one another. Frost's use of the tent imagery also shows the readers his bondage towards his mother in the sense that the tent standing is the bond and hold between them that cant be broken, that can never fall no matter what obstacles the two of them may face. Being the person that Frost was, this poem seems to show the readers of Frost's soft side as a man and how his weakness towards his mother or maybe even some woman he really cares for seems to cripple him and draw him towards that person.


 http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-silken-tent/

Extra Credit Assignment #1

Poets use their own imagination and creativity in the poems. However, poems are sometimes re-written such as "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" by William Shakespeare which was again written by Howard Moss. Although both of these poems written by two completely different poets are telling the same story, the way the poets use their own creativity really brings forth a different meaning in their poems. In Shakespeare's original poem, he uses his creativity more on the nature of the summer's day, "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May." (3) Moving forward to Moss's creativity in his poem, I believe that Moss used his imagination and creativity in his poem but focuses more on the reader and talks to his reader in his poem, "After you're dead and gone,/In this poem you'll live on!" (12-13) Both of these poems have the same meaning towards a summer day but due to the different style of poets writing the same poem, their creativity and imagination brings forth two completely different poems.

Blog Assignment #4 - Romanticism

Poems come in all different styles, but what we don't always notice is our everyday music and painting that we hear and see today by the writers of those pieces are romantic poets as well. I believe that there is a creative mind in everyone. During the romantic era, people used paintings and music as long as poems in order to interpret quality stories. Music was a big thing in the romantic era where they used piano's and soft playing instruments in order to sooth the people listening to their music and giving them a good feel on what story the song told. A song that I believe describes how musicians of today use their own lyrics in order to cite poems within their work would be "I Wanna Grow Old With You" by Westlife. This specific song builds a story within its lyrics of a romantic time between a man and a woman who seem to be miles and miles apart and their love keeps them strong no matter what. This type of song and meaning reminds me of "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare used different types of love and emotions in his work in order to catch the readers eyes and take them into the stories. "Romeo and Juliet" was a story about two young lovers who were separated due to their families hatred towards each other and were forced to keep their love a secret. Even though this story ends in the tragic suicides of both Romeo and Juliet, the story still brings forth a romantic era in time where love concord all. In the song however I feel that it interprets the same meaning of distance and all other different types of emotions that brings out the romantic era. In this specific part, "The time we spent apart will make our love grow stronger /But it hurt so bad I can't take it any longer/I wanna grow old with you"(8-10) I believe it really brings out the imagery in the song and gives the listener a good picture of the distance between two lovers and how their love will never die. This song and story that I used as my examples towards the romantic era I believe really brought forth the true meaning of the romantic era which was a time of love and peace where people believed that as long as love was there nothing could break it. People during the romantic era used poems, stories, paintings and music in order to express different feelings and emotions not just because it was their jobs but also to bring forth a point of romantic emotions and how love was something that couldn't be explained or drawn out, it needed to be expressed in your own way. 


http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/westlife/iwannagrowoldwithyou.html

Blog Assignment #3 - Bartleby

I believe that "Bartleby the Scrivener"by Herman Melville is an amazing story that tells about the minds of others and also how people react to others people reactions towards different things. This story is put in the point view of Bartleby's employer and his reactions towards Bartleby's attitude and his work ethic. I believe that Melville used the employer as the point of view in the story becuase Melville wanted to show a side from another person other then Bartleby expressing both Bartleby's attitude and also the employer that throughout the story is basically being shut down by Bartleby. Bartleby is characterized in this story as a quiet and in the eyes of the reader a lazy worker that doesnt listen too well. Bartleby does the work that he wants to do but seems to be a little thick headed when it comes to his listening skills. The employer later finds that Bartleby lives in the office basically seeming homeless and here you get a good look at the soul of the employer of the story. When finding out the details of Bartleby he never insists on helping him or trying to maybe take it a little easy on his but he does nothing and seems to not care, moving on with his own life. Even when Bartleby decides to stop writting the employer hands him his paycheck and basically just tells him to get lost like he was nothing to him as a writer or as a person. Bartleby refuses to leave the building though and you finally get a sense of emotion becuase the employer states that he doesnt have the heart to tell Bartleby to leave. As time passes he becomes a distraction to people and the employer tells Bartleby to either leave the building or to be arrested. Bartleby remained stationary and he is arrested where in jail he refuses to eat and eventually ends up dieing in prision. The employee having more and more emotions towards Bartleby goes to bail him out and finds out of Bartleby's tragic death. I believe that Bartleby was suffering from a disorder of some kind and didnt recieve the proper help and attention that he needed. Bartleby's employers didnt see him as a man that needed help but as someone that was simply taking up space and needed to be removed. Thinking this while reading the story can change a readers thoughts on Bartleby from maybe being the annoying, lazy and rude employee that simply didnt want to do anything, to a man that had nothing or maybe felt like he had nothing and needed some professional attention. Barteby I believe changed the employer from himself and really made it clear that you need to look at the inside of a person and not just the outside and someone. The employer also known as the lawyer in the story seems to be shocked and a changed man when realizing that Bartleby's previous job as a clerk in a dead letter office maybe put him into this depressed and deranged state. I believe that everyone can change at any time and the employer in this story as much as in reality that people look right through the people they encounter and dont try to understand the true story behind everyone.

Blog Assignment #2 - Faulkner

In the story " A Rose For Emily " by William Faulkner he writes about a woman named Emily who went through a hard life. The story is told from the point of view of the townspeople and their reactions to the strange lifestyle to Emily lived. The story was more told from ending to beginning and had minor parts where the narrator briefly came back into the present day of the story. The whole point of view of the story I believe was a biography about Emily's life. The narrator captured every detail about Emily from her normal living lifestyle till her very last days from what it seemed to believe she was becoming insane. From my own experiences I know the feeling of losing family and having to basically start all over without that one specific person who seemed to be there for you anytime you needed them. " Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years, and which would have to be forced. They waited until Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it. " (Faulkner) I believe that quote from the story really defined the townspeople as the narrators acting as just a local neighbor of Emily or the towns police department. I also believe that the quote shows the type of respect that they had for Emily waiting for her to be buried before fully investigating the house that was basically on lockdown for 40 years. I would treat this story as a horror story almost, kind of something you would watch on the television hooked on the Halloween movies with Michael Myers. This story had every reason to be known as a horror story from Emily going insane to the brutal murder of Homer and the vivid detail of his body decade in the locked upstairs room of Emily's house. William Faulkner just like many other authors of his time were suffering from either depression or other types of emotional problems and expressed his true feelings through this story. 

Blog Assignment #1 - Ernest Hemingway

Maybe the most interesting and most popular writer of his time, Ernest Hemingway was an incredible figure in history. I find Hemingway to be an amazing writer due to the way he expresses himself through his writing. In his short story, "A Clean Well-Lighted Place" Hemingway wrote about an old man basically struggling to understand the true meaning of life and what it represented. I believe that Hemingway was describing not only the old man that played the main character in his story but himself as well. Hemingway's story to me described his everyday life. To me Hemingway grew up being a negative person and always down. He never expected much and seemed to enjoy being miserable. In his story I do believe that he described and introduced his character as rude and almost selfish to express his feelings at the time. Hemingway's biggest downfall I believe was when going into the army and getting injured which sent him into a spiraling depression. He met a nice young lady at the time but she didnt want to leave everything behind for someone she just help cure and he was heart broken. I believe losing the love of his life really triggered Hemingway's depression and constant hate on the world. Alcohol was an everyday thing to him and it only seemed that in time he was going to commit suicide as he did later on."Last week he tried to commit suicide," one waiter said. "Why?"  "He was in despair." "What about?" "Nothing." "How do you know it was nothing?" "He has plenty of money." (Hemingway). This quote from his short story really made me think about his reflection towards life itself. We all experience bad times in life but we fight and battle to overcome the demons dragging us down. To me it almost seemed like Hemingway sided with the demons inside of him and channeled his anger into words. As in the quote, Hemingway wasnt in any debt or trouble that would make him come to a conclusion that suicide was the last option. Its clear that Hemingway was simply a miserable person that couldnt find the light at the end of the tunnel. His life experiences deffinatly influenced him into creating this short story. I believed he also used his life experiences to create a fictional character such like himself and express his thoughts and feelings. "Another," said the old man. "No. Finished." The waiter wiped the edge of the table with a towel and shook his head. The old man stood up, slowly counted the saucers, took a leathercoin purse from his pocket and paid for the drinks, leaving half a peseta tip. The waiter watched him go down the street, a very oldman walking unsteadily but with dignity (Hemingway). This quote I believe put Hemingway to peace in the story. He expressed his cut off to not only drinking in the story, but cut off to life. In his story the old man didnt argue or express any hatred towards the waiter basically telling him to pick up and leave. The ending of the quote spoke to me and told me Hemingway was at his end. Walking away unsteady from being drunk in the story but in Hemingway's own reality he was unsteady because he was at his final stages in life. He expressed not only in his story but in reality as well that even though he was walking away losing the battle, he still walked away with his head held high and his dignity.