This Blessed House

After reading and rereading this story, i can honestly say that i have not read anything quite like this. The author, Jhumpa Lahiri, does a very interesting job in writing this story. The more the reader gets involved in this story, the more the readers sees the little details that change the meaning. I loved how this story was almost like getting to know someone, in which as the reader reads this story, we see how Sanjeev and his newly wed wife Twinkle have a interesting marriage. I liked how the reader gets to know the character as the read the story. also, she does an amazing job when she describes different scenes in this story, for example, the way she describes his music that he listens too. i found it very interesting in the way that she choose to end this story as she simply states that he follows her into the room. i almost interpret that as she is saying that Twinkle leads the marriage, because the whole story she gets her way. Sanjeev has an actual indian history and is clearly not a Christian, and Twinkle is also clearly not a christian and a good clue to this is that she states that they are not christians and she smokes (which does not define a Christian). I almost feel compassionate for Sanjeev as he seems to be in a bad situation. it seems that he is slowly finding out that love takes a lot of compromise, but it seems that Twinkle does not want to compromise at all. i like that this story seems real. this seems like a real life situation and this type of situation probably happens every day. In marriage, i highly doubt that the couple will agree on everything that comes up, however it is how a couple deals with the problems and situations that make them great. one question that this text brought to my mind was; did he regret marrying twinkle? At one point in this story, it seems that he is actually regretting his marriage as he looks back to the women that his mother introduced him too. Also, one thing that caught my attention was that twinkle never said that she loved him back, and she is the one who was in a loving relationship before. that would scare me if i was Sanjeev. Also, Sanjeev really seems to be caught up in his image as he really strives to keep his house clean and he cares so much about his reputation. As a whole, this story was not dark, but it was not uplifting either. I think that this story was a real life situation that one can learn a lot from.

Reading for Transformation

This was a very interesting piece of work as Francis X. McAloon believes that there is a spiritual connection with poetry and spirituality. I must say that have not thought of poetry in this way before, as in high school it was a common assignment to descern what the reading meant and interpret the usless poem. One thing that I notice was that he had three different techniques in which he used to read poetry which were talked about in the chapter in the Anthology book. They are: the world of the text, the world behind the text, and the world before the text. This is pretty much the same as what the author said in the Anthology book. I agree with this statement. Also, one thing that i found interesting was his devotional time. When one thinks of devotions, they probably dont think of poetry, or at least I never did. The only poetry read was from the book of Psalms. Its funny how we read the bible, especially books like Psalms and the Songs of Solomon, and we dont even realize that we are reading poetry. Those books are very profound and very poetic. One thing that i am noticing a common trend in Literature and English, is that the text must be engaged. We must have a conversation with the text and i completely agree with that. One thing that i have a difficult time understanding is how the author believes that poetry is so important and it would almost seem that his life is centered around it. I am honestly not sure if it is important or not. I know that i enjoy writing and reading it, but i have never put it on the level of devotional. But one thing that i have noticed is that my appreciation for literature seems to be growing as this class progresses daily.

What we talk about when we talk about love

Wow, what a story. Raymond Carver uses a very interesting style of language as he tells this story. This seems like an autobiography, and the story itself seemed very choppy, but it flowed in the same time frame throughout. One of the things that i would give Carver praise on, is the way that he depicts his characters, especially Mel. Right off the bat he states that he is a Cardiologist and 'can talk', which makes the reader assume that he is kind of arrogant or a know-it-all. As i was was reading this story, one of the main things that i noticed was how Terri and Mel have a bitter past. Carver does a great job in depicting the image that they are not over each others past. One thing that i am having a difficult time with, is what is the main point of this story? It seems that Mel has a twisted version of love because of the past relationships. One of the points could be that love is what we think it means. For Terri, she said that Ed loved her, even though he physically abused her and violently dragged her around the room. This was his way of showing her love, but for Mel, he thought that this was absurd and that it was not even remotely close to love. Also, we see the idea of 'the one' in this story. I have had many friends ask me if I believe that there is 'one' person for you to fall in love with. Obviously, Mel thinks that we can love many people, as he states that if someone dies in a marriage, the other party will quickly fall in love and find a replacement. This story as a whole seemed dark and kind of ironically depressing. Mel is kind and gently at first, then towards the end of the story, he is dropping 'F' bombs all over the place. He seems also to be an alcoholic. I also saw another idea in this story as Nick and Laura seem to have a wonderful relationship, as they are 'still on the honeymoon', while Mel and Terri seem to be stuck in all of their past and hurt in relationships. The ending of this story blew my mind and even after re-reading that passage, i still have no idea why it ended like that. It said the room went dark and it was silent. This part left me very confused and it did not help with the theme of the story as it added to the confusion. I really hope we are able to discuss this in class tomorrow as i would like to see what my peers think that this ending might have meant.

Active Reading

"What you get out of what you read is determined by how you read it." Before I read this chapter, I would not have necessarily agreed with this statement. Usually, or at least before college, I thought of reading as simply a process in which one reads the words off of the page and there is nothing more to it than that. I would read a couple of books here and there, but usually when I did this, I would not process it or actively read it. But now that I have fully read this chapter, I do believe that one can actively read and should actively read, because it is not a difficult process. Most of the tools or ways to actively read I have already done. For example, I usually annotate or take notes. However, this chapter also talked about relating to past experiences and mythology and religion. As I was reading that part, I realized how much I relate to that, because I love books about grace and forgiveness and religion. This is because God has shown me so much grace and forgiveness in my life that I want to read more and more about this topic. Also, this chapter showed me how to look deeply at the character and analyze them. I subconsciously did this before, but now I realize that it is important to actually engage the author and each character. Also, one thing that I learned was to pay more attention to the title, because the title has significant importance and might provide insight to the literature at hand. Also, something that I did not know that cross referencing in literature existed. I thought that was for dictionaries and encyclopedias, but after I thought about that section I realized that this tool is used more than one might think. This statement that I quoted at the beginning of this blog, is very true and important. Literature is something that has tended to bring frustration in my past, however this statement tells me that this can be different. I have a tendency to read exactly what is on the page and not to think deeper unless it is obvious. This chapter provided many tools that I can and will apply to my reading as I work on becoming an active reader instead of a passive reader.

My Literary Profile

My earliest childhood memory of Literature is obviously bedtime stories and children's' books. My mom used to read me books such as 'Little Engine that could' and 'Thomas the Tank engine' and other stories like those. Its funny, as I look back, I am reminded how I used to have such a vivid imagination. I could picture myself in those stories as my mom read the words off of the pages. In middle school, I read the novel "Hatchet". I loved that story, because of the amazing adventures. I also loved the series "A series of Unfortunate Events" and "The Chronicles of Narnia". Those stories really provoked my imagination and captured my attention. Recently however, i have not read as much, because my attention has shifted to real life Literature, such as religious books and books that I can learn from that are relevant to my major. However, these books do not provoke my imagination as much as the old stories did. I was a little surprised when i read the essay for this course, as i was when I read the English II essay, because my expectations were not what was outlined in this essay. I do not have the best memories from high school in Literature. It was always so boring and it was exactly like the first model in the essay: read textbooks, listen to lectures, take exams. This is the perfect modal which temporarily ruined my experience in Literature. However, I am excited for this class now because of the 'journey' that we are  going to take with Literature. Just like English II, I have a good feeling that this class will be fun and exciting, because it is not set up traditionally. This essay made me remember that Literature is a part of life, in the music we listen to, and the TV we watch, and the movies we see, and the stories we tell. I am excited to take this journey to learn how to read better and to absorb the text better. I also love how Professor Corrigan states that we need to strive to be transformed in what we do. To learn something that we didn't know before, just like in English II, the purpose is to have a dialog with each other to learn more about life.