Topic Proposal---

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Topic Proposal---

            The guiding question for my analysis of the text has to do with the “eyes” in many places in Margaret Atwood’s book, “The Handmaid’s Tale.”  Who did these “eyes” belong too? What were they looking for? Why were they everywhere? I would also like to learn more about who was in power. I know there where woman, but only certain ones. What makes one woman able to control other women? Same goes with the men, there were some men that had control over other men. Why is that? I will have to dig deep and find out.

            I plan to research the time when Hitler was in power. As I see it, this book is somewhat familiar. I will investigate what the men and women that were in control thought at that time. I will also find out what the innocent men and women thought of that time too. It may be helpful to find documentaries that lead me into the mind of the commander. Also find out who was in control. Where these “eyes” that was seen all over by Offred real? Or was it her imagination going wild and she thinking everything and everyone is out to “kill” being she has had everything just taken away from her. Offred didn’t have control over nothing. So maybe I can also check into what happens with someone when they go through something tragic. What they do and the things they think. Do their imaginations go wild?

            I chose this topic because I noticed that Offred would see “eyes” in many different places throughout the book and why is this. Where they really there or was it her mind playing tricks on her? Maybe this will help me better understand Atwood by investigating deeper into the mind of men and women of the communist time.  

Here's a web sight to better understand Atwood and her background. Also her best two books. http://www.answers.com/topic/margaret-atwood

A Letter

To whom this may interest,                                                                           March 20, 2011

            I am writing this letter in regards to English 102. At the beginning of the semester I was very nervous! I thought this class was going to be difficult because we had to do blog postings, many essays, and doing things on the computer I have never done before. It’s always a little scary heading into the unknown. It was a little challenging at first, but once I got used to the systems it wasn’t bad at all. Just like Laura Cline had said in the beginning.

 The biggest challenge for me in this class so far is getting started with writing an essay. The thought of how I am going to start an essay and what I am going to say in the essay and how I am going to write it, is challenging. Once I finally get started and begin writing, I look back and wonder why I was so uptight about writing the essay after all. I also find it challenging getting my thoughts down on paper. I feel I have a hard time explaining what I am trying to say in writing. My biggest success so far in this class is learning the correct way to write papers, for example having “PIE” in each paragraph. It has helped me out tremendously! Information in each paragraph regarding the thesis sentence is also needed.  

            The readings we have read in this class have been very informational. It’s interesting to read the different views soldiers had about war and what goes on that many people are so naïve about, including me! First of all I have never been much of a reader, so I fall short of knowing what goes on with history. The little I do know is from my husband, being he loves knowing as much as possible with history. This has been a great opportunity for me to learn about what happened to a few during the war.

            Literary analysis is different from the other class I have taken because I don’t have to do much research. Literary analysis is a little easier because I can write a lot of what I think and compare different ideas and write what I think the writer is writing about or why the writer is writing about a certain thing.

            My goals for the second half of the session are to continue working on being a writer. One of the ways I am going to try to accomplish that is by getting my words out on paper first then going back and redoing it. Also I am going to work on keeping my essays easy to follow. I have had trouble with my papers jumping around a little too much. I would also like to accomplish getting over the anxiety I have prior to writing an essay. I just never know where or how to start a paper and trying to figure out what I think is important for me to write about.   Thanks for your interest in reading my letter.

Sincerely,

Heather Wittenberg

The Sand Storm

                                                    

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=the+sandstorm+photos&view=detail&id=55A9007FCA3C9B7D55723AD379ACF4A15E3533BE&first=1&FORM=IDFRIR

“The Sandstorm” is a play that will bring a tear to your eye. It is a play regarding the war and the men that were there to witness the indescribable and terrifying events that happened to the innocence man, women and children. Also it is about the things that go through some of the minds of the men and how they cope with the situation. They describe a few different scenarios of what they saw and what they were doing in the particular area they were in. They were on a mission and they were there to finish what they had started whether they wanted to or not.

          Many of the men fighting during war had left wives and children behind to go fight for the freedom of The United States of America. They had no idea of what they were heading into. There is no way a person could prepare for what was to come during war. We who are at home safe and sound cannot comprehend what goes on in the war territories.

          When the men are in “fight to survive” mode, they are a totally different person. They do things that they normally wouldn’t do if they never went to war. Here is an example of just one of their mind sets, “I took pictures of the dead hajjis. Hell if I could shoot ‘em with my M-16 I guess I could shoot ‘em with a camera too, you know” (Huze 3). This would not be normal behavior if LCPL DODD wasn’t at war. It was an interesting read. To watch the play would be very interesting.  

Here is an interesting read on war heroes:

http://homeofheroes.com/DG/index.html

On the Rainy River

Tip Tip Resort

http://tiptopresortmn.com/layout/images/tip-top-view16.jpg

 

 Tim O'Brien has some interesting stories that he writes about in the book, "The Things They Carried." I will write about "On the Rainy River." In this one in particular, he recieves a letter from the government. This letter is to inform him that he has been selected, drafted, to go to Vietnam. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to him! He is just TOO good to have to go! He heads out of town, heading to Canada. He stops at a place called "Tip Top Resort." He stays there for six days, trying to decide if he should go fight or leave his life behind and start a new one with nobody. Everyone he knows would call his horrible names he couldn't handle. He ends up going to war and when he returns he thinks of himself as a "coward" that went to war. 

I feel bad for this man at twenty-two and the thoughts that ran through his mind and what he had to see. I don't think he was a very positive man to begin with. When he received the draft letter, he was working at a slaughter house and he wasn't to happy with that either. To make matters worse, he gets the draft letter to go fight in a war that he was 100% against! Elroy, the owner of the resort, spoke very little. It is amazing how neither of them said much about what he was doing there or why and while they were together on the boat Tim knew why he took him to that spot on the river. That is when Tim made his final decision of going to war.

 Here are some interesting facts about the "Vietnam War." You must check out!!
http://www.vhfcn.org/stat.html

 

 

Two poems to check out



“Song of Napalm” written by Bruce Weigl

                    http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v7n2/poetry/weigl_b/index.htm

This poem really made me think about what he was trying to get across to his readers. What was he talking about and where was he coming from? He writes, “After the storm, after the rain stopped pounding” (Weigl line 1) Just by reading this, the reader would think that there was a major storm going on. But jumping to the end of this paragraph it says, “Crisscrossed the sky like barbed wire/ But you said they were only branches.” (line 13 & 14) As we can see, someone is lying. There has been mistrust from the women. “I was sane enough to pause and breathe” (line 17). Now what is making her insane and unable to breathe? Weigl picks words that are easy to understand, but the reader has to look deep into the poem to understand what he is talking about. Reading this with the mind frame of life on the farm, in the midst of a storm, watching horses and what the fields had to offer would make sense too. But reading deeper into it, I find a different meaning.  

Works Cited

Bruce Weigl, “Song of Napalm,” Poetry of Witness

For another poem of Napalm, check this one out. It's pretty neat!

"Song Of Napalm" by Gary Jacobson © 2001http://pzzzz.tripod.com/napalm.html

“Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting” written by Kevin C. Powers

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=photos+of+soldiers+writing+love+letters&view=detail&id=3224F82A2BB91DA226A234EFF2D31C5E4F89230D&FORM=IGRE5

While reading this poem, it came to mind, how thankful we should ALL be for those that have gone to fight for our freedom. There have been those soldiers that have come home and had many struggles with post-traumatic stress or whatever it may be. In the first paragraph Powers writes, “I tell her I love her like not killing her” (Powers line 1). Now what does he mean by that?  So here he is saying that he loves her while he is in war fighting his enemy. In the second stanza is says, the letter will “stink” when opened of “bolt oil and burned powder/and the things that is says” (line 4-8) He is obviously talking about the enemy territory that he is fighting in. P Don’t let fighting wound the heart.  

Works Cited

Kevin C. Powers, “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting”

February 2009- Issue of Poetry

Another love/war poem to check out if you would like.

http://poetry.about.com/od/poems/l/blfrostwar.htm

The Necessity to Speak

                                              http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/hamillview.htm

The Necessity to Speak

Written by Sam Hamill

            The Necessity to Speak is written by someone who has been through a lot of different issues through his life and while reading this, it is very obvious. He has been on both sides of the fence, from being an executioner to a victim. Just as Kung-Fu Tzu says, "All wisdom is rooted in learning to call things by the right name." What a piece of advice we should all learn from. It is very important to remember to teach our kids the difference between right and wrong, with compassionate love. Not with an iron fist or leniency. Why is it that individuals that go to jail usually return to jail or women who are battered woman go back to the ones who are battering or fine ones that will do the same thing? As a matter of fact, ninety-two percent of the men on Death Row were battered children.

            There is a difference in disciplining children. There are those that don’t discipline and those that discipline to harshly. Harsh physical discipline is unnecessary and wrong. When children do wrong, there are ways to discipline that doesn’t involve spanking. I see know wrong with giving your child a little hair pull or a pinch while in the grocery store and they are throwing a fit. I think every kid needs guide lines they have to follow and they know if the guide lines have been crossed, there will be discipline involved.

            I think a HUGE problem with society today is what is on TV and the video games children play. The stuff that is out there is horrible. They see violence everywhere on TV and video games. Men are “masculine” when they can slap or have “the MAN of the house” attitude. Why is this?

            Also I think when it comes to violence between battered women and children; most often it is because there is drugs and alcohol involved. Hamill mentioned that these kinds of acts happen in all different areas in society, rich poor, young and old. Which is true, but I do believe it is going to happen more often in the areas of uneducated, undisciplined, uncared for, lower class homes. We all chose what type of people we want to have as friends and I know for myself, I can spot from a mile away what type of person I don’t want anything to do with. Reality. We must deal with reality when it comes our direction, good or bad. It’s the true and it’s happened.

Here are some more poems of Sam Hamills, just follow the link if interested!

http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0415/2004002480.html

“Good Readers and Writers”

Good Readers and Writers, they start at a young age!

    Nabokov thinks a good reader is someone with an imagination, a memory, a dictionary, and has an artistic sense. I definitely agree with him. I think if a reader has these qualities then they will truly get everything out of the story that the author intended while writing the book. Good characteristics of a good reader consist of many different things. First of all I think it is most important for the reader to be interested in reading. If the reader likes to read then the imagination, memory, and artistic sense are great characteristics for the reader. Also, I think that comprehension and understanding  is important for a good reader too. I consider myself an fine reader. I am not a good nor bad reader. I have never been a reader. I can read and will read but I can always find something else to so instead. I have read books in the past and truly enjoyed them. Although it is far and few between. Growing up I always wished I was a reader. It always looked so relaxing and enjoyable, but it was never me. I finally came to realize it was not me. Not everyone is a good reader.

Here is another article to read if you would like to know more about a good reader and writer. Click the link below.

http://www.ridge414.com/files/Nabokov_Good_Readers_Good_Writers_1_.pdf