Free Write for No Country for Old Men

No country for old men is known as one of the best novels in a long time. the book has one prize after prize and I think it deserves all the prizes it recieved. McCarthy makes the men the power in the book and makes it seem like all the men have more power then the women. Women do not have a real part in the book and I feel that is because of McCarthy's past. He has not had a marriage that has stuck and I feel that he lacks the knowledge to put the women character into the book. I feel that is why he gives the men so much power and so much intensity in the book. The book is all about power and in all the relationships in the book the men told the women what to do and the women abided. The book was well written for what McCarthy wanted to get out. He didnt want it to be like a regular book and thats why it has been up for prize after prize. I feel in a way all McCarthy's books relate to his life one way or an another.

Free Write For Beloved

Beloved is suppose to be one of the best books on slavery and in my opinion it lives up to its expectations. The best part of the book is that it always keeps you wondering especially with beloved. Who is she really? what is she a symbol of? how come she decided to come back? Because of this its a very interesting book. One thing i wonder throughout the novel is how come beloved didnt come back and murder the mother when the mother is the one who killed her as a baby. There are two different sides to this. One might believe that she didnt come back and kill the mother because the mother killed her because she loved her and didnt want to see her go through what she experienced with slavery. others might think she should have got back at her mother because you should never kill anyone even out of love especailly your own child. this book leaves many questions in peoples mind

Free-write - Hard-Boiled Wonderland...

There are plenty of signs in that link the two stories (or worlds) like paper clips and skulls and the librarian. But is the librarian the same person in both worlds? I have many other questions as well. Why unicorns and unicorn skulls? Is the unicorn skull the professor gives the protagonist real, or is it really fake as he says. The skull in the real world does begin to glow just like in the protagonist's subconscience. Why don't the characters have names, yet many famous people in pop culture are mentioned. The main character shares many interests with the author Haruki Murakami. Is this how he generates his characters in his novels? When the protagonist makes a mistake counting the coins in the elevator, is this a sign for things ahead? How do days go by in his subconscience when only hours have gone by in the real world?

free write for the celebrant

the celebrant was a good book but i personally think it receives too much hype.  the novel is often considered one of the best baseball novels of all time.  i think this isnt so because the book only deals with baseball for a short amount of time.  most of the novel is dealing with the personal demons of jackie kapp.  his attempts to move away from the old jewish style of living that his family has, he obsession with christy mathewson, and his disbeleif of anything bad going on in baseball.  also i think that dealing with great baseball players like christy mathewson is great but the novel needed to deal more with him.  it speaks of his legendary no hitter but then more or less he disappears untill he meets kapp while he is dieing.  if kapp was truly obsessed like it shows in the novle shouldnt we deal with his obsession the whole novel?  also the focous on the black sox scandal is kind of vague unless you are an avid baseball person and know about it already.  then late in the novel when kapp meets mathewson, mathewson is a jerk to him and thats it, nothing else happens with him.  finally i think the novel would have benefitted from fictional places instead of real places.

free write No country..

In No Country for Old Men, McCarthy basically has no important female characters. The only two that really stand out are the hitchhiker and Carla Jean. He kills off the hitchhiker and what surprised me the most was the fact that when Carla found out her husband has been with another girl in a hotel room it was seen as no big deal. McCarthy totally disregarded her feelings and went on to the next chapter. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that McCarthy has been through two divorces. It is possible that he has given up on women. However, in No Country, I feel he is somewhat sexist because the women in the book are not important at all. McCarthy may have just given up on women altogether or maybe he never really understood women in the first place and that is why he has been through two divorces. Also, the book is extremely violent especially the character Chigurh he continuously murders people without ever getting caught. In a way, I feel McCarthy resembles Chirgurh. One way I feel they resemble each other is because Chigurh is never found and McCarthy stays away from the media. It is very rare that he will voluntarily let himself be interviewed. Just like Chigurh he doesnt want to be "found." Also, after two divorces McCarthy may have felt that he had no control over his life. By creating the character Chigurh, McCarthy is able to exude the power he wishes he had. He uses violence as power in the book. Chigurh is so violent in the sense that he has killed so many individuals and yet he never gets caught. Therefore, Chigurh is seen as powerful because he gets whatever he wants. From the time McCarthy was a little boy he strived for power. He even went as far as to change his name to Cormac after an Irish King. Kings are very powerful because they rule the people and the land.

Self-Inventory

Somewhere in the novel Slaughterhouse Five there must be some deeper understanding or meaning for the craziness. The way the whole book jumps back and forth between different events in Billy Pilgrim's life has to have more meaning. It could easily be explained by the author going mentally insane or senile some kind of disease like that but other than that it still doesn't make sense to me. There is no emotion in the entire book other than when Billy Pilgrim sees the abused horse, not a tear when his wife died, no sadness when his friends and soldiers were killed, nothing. The recurrence of "So it goes" after every death or bad event symbolizes the way he felt about almost everything. Why did the author pick those words? Kurt Vonnegut dealt with a lot throughout his life but why was the whole theme of the book negative? Of all the different characters that could have been chosen why Valencia? Why the one woman who no one wanted to marry and was described so poorly? What was the point of adding the gruesome scene with the killing of the dog?

Free Write- No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men has some reoccuring symbols that are imperative to it's meaning. Guns would be the most obvious and effective of the symbols. Guns are seemingly a symbol for power. Only the men in the novel posses them. There are also a wide variery of various guns. Why do the women never gain control of guns? Why do the men change weapons so frequently? What would the story be like without guns? Animals are used a couple of times as a symbol. At the start of the novel there is a large black dog, which in superstitions is regarded as an omen of bad luck or death. The dog clearly forshadows events to come. Horses are used to portray emotion. When the horses are at the drug scene they are uneasy and jumpy as to convey the emotions of the men. But because they are men in the modern western they are clearly not allowed to show emotion. Why is it that McCarthy does not allow for almost any emotion? Even the women characters are somber and accepting of whatever their male "superiors" tell them. How would an influx of emotion affect the flow or meaning of the novel?

Comments for everyone...

Before reading each summary I would like to emphasize that every piece of writing you do for this novel should adhere to the basic guidelines of writing we've discussed in this class.

1. Introduction - Grab the reader's attention with the very first sentence somehow, then build each sentence from old to new information and from general to specific, and then lead to some sort of thesis statement.

2. Thesis Statement Needed

3. Each paragraph needs to have a focus that develops the thesis rather than just based on chapters or sections of the novel.

4. There needs to be a conclusion that does more than simply summarizes your summary

The Bell Jar: 1st Half summary

The first chapter, introduces the main character, Esther Greenwood. The story is narrated in first person, but in the first chapter she mentions how she has a baby now, which leads you to believe that the story is being told in the future. Esther, who is a college student at the time of the story, is doing an internship in New York. While she knows that most girls would envy her for all of the expensive gifts and clothes she gets for free, and for the glamorous parties she gets to attend, but for some reason, it does not excite her the way she thinks it should. One night, when her friend Doreen and her are in a cab on their way to a party thrown by their magazine, a man approaches their cab and asks them to join him and his friends at a bar. His name is Larry and they decide to go with him, because Esther wants to see New York from a different perspective besides the carefully planned out events of the magazine. Larry appeared to be very interested in Doreen, but Esther was not interested in his friend. In the second chapter, Doreen, Larry and Esther all end up going back to his apartment, but Esther gets frustrated while they are flirting and danced and walks home 48 blocks. When she gets home, she relaxes in the tub for a long time, because she feels as if soaking in the tub is dissolving all of the bad off of her; Lenny, and New York. Doreen comes back really drunk, really later, and tried to get Esther to let her into her room, but Esther leaves her in the hallway, where she vomits, and Esther vows that she will continue to be Doreen’s friend, but have no real attachment to her. In the third Chapter, the girls are all at a luncheon thrown by the magazine, minus Doreen who was with Lenny. Esther recalls that morning, when she decline hanging out with Doreen and Lenny for the day and decided to skip the fur show that they were supposed to attend as well and spend the day in bed. When one of the girls asks her why she wasn’t there, she started to cry, because Jay Cee, their boss had called her and asked her into her office and asked her if she was enjoying her job, and what she wants to do when she graduated college. Although Esther usually had a scripted out line as a response, when Jay Cee asked, she simply responded “I don’t know”, but then tries to save herself and says that she was thinking about going into publishing. Jay Cee tells her that it would be in her best interest to learn a couple languages if she wants to be a competitive publisher, but this stresses Esther out, because she does not feel that there is time in her schedule to take up a language. You can tell in this chapter that Esther is starting to feel like there is no direction in her life, and she seems unhappy. In the next chapter, Jay Cee had sent Esther off to do some work and then to the banquet. After the banquet the girls go to a movie premier. Half way through, all of the girls start feeling sick and decide to leave the theatre, and they throw up all the way home. Esther collapses in the hallway and wakes up to a nurse putting her into bed and Doreen informs her later that all of the girls have food poisoning from the crab. The next morning, Esther gets a phone call from Constantin, who is a friend of Mrs. Willard, who is a friend of her mothers. Mrs. Willard has a son, Buddy, who wants to marry Esther, but she loathes him. In his recent letters Buddy seems to be making more of an attempt, such as telling her that he found a poem written by a doctor, which shows that he has changed his way of thinking that doctors and writers do not get along. When the first started dating, Esther was really interested in him, he asked her to the Yale Junior Prom, where he treated her like a friend, but kissed her afterwards. The next chapter, Esther thinks back to a lot of events in their relationship, including watching a baby being born for a lecture. After the lecture Buddy asked her if she had ever seen a naked man and continued to take off his clothed. He then admitted to her that he slept with a women from his summer job in Cape Cod. She broke up with him, because she was angry that he presented himself as pure, but really wasn't. All of these events and memories play important roles in the ending of the novel, and revealing the important things in her life.

No Country for Old Men

The novel began with the sheriff Bell talkin about how he used to visit the psychopathic killer before his execution.The next chapter begins with Chigurh killing the sheriff and escaping from lock up.He then managed to kill another innocent person on the interstate.It was the first couple of pages of the story and already there were two murders.By the next chapter, Llewelyn Moss gets himself tied into what will become a chase for money.He comes across trucks that have dead mexican men inside and outside.At the scene he finds a bag filled with a whole bunch of cash.Before he finds tha cash he does see a bag with brown powder like substance,i would think to be drugs.It was obvious that it was an exchange gone wrong.Moss takes the money and returns home not really telling his wife what he just saw and found.By early morning he had went back out to where he found the cash, to find that someone else is out there.He must avoid from bein seen by who i would say is the psychopathic killer.The novel goes on to talking about how things have changed.Bell went from breaking up fist fights to now handling multiple murders.

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness starts off with five men sitting on a ship talking about their past sailing experiances, and this is where we are introduced to who will be the main character Marlow. Marlow starts to talk about his days navigating a steam ship through the Congo River in Africa, and the story then switches its tense to the past when Marlow was in the Congo. Marlow arrives in Congo and has to wait for a boat to pick him up, and for the next few days he takes in his surrondings, and he sees the violence towards the native people. Then one day the cheif accountant of the Belgian Company, the company for which Marlow is working for, gives Marlow a message to tell a man named Mr. Kurtz. The message is that Marlow must tell him that everything is fine in the outter stations, since Kurtz is deep in the Congo and information does not travel easy through the jungle. Soon Marlow is picked up and arrives at the Central Station where he finds the steam ship he has to captian, and the whole bottom of it is torn out from rocks. It takes Marlow three months to repair his ship, and one day he is introduced to a man known as the "brickmaker", the brickmaker tells Marlow about Kurtz and makes Kurtz seem like a prodigy. Finally the repairs on Marlows ship are complete and he sets off for a two month trip. After the second day fogs desends upon the river and Marlow and his crew are forced to wait for it to lift before they continue, and while waiting they are attacked by natives, one of his men is killed while the other shoot at the natives with their rifles, after a while Marlow manages to scare the natives off my sounded the horn on the ship. The story so far is very eventfull and hopefully it will continue like this to make for a very good story.

the celebrant

The Celebrant is a great novel for true baseball fans.  The only book ever published by Eric Rolfe Greenberg, it is a true classic.  The novel goes into a jewish immigrant, Jack Kapp, and his job as a jeweler.  the novel also goes into Kapp's obsession of New York pitcher Christy Mathewson.  after seeing the amazing no hitter thrown by Mathewson on July 15, 1901, Kapp decides to make a ring in celebration of this game.  the ring eventually becomes a championship ring for the team and is known as a "celebrant" of Mathewson's accomplishments.  The novel shows how Kapp lives out his dream of being a baseball player who never made it.  As much as the book explores the dark times that were going on in baseball during the early 1900's.  Kapp's obsession of Mathewson and other geat players leads Kapp to discover the corruption in baseball due to betting.  Also with the Kapp family making rings for the perennial National League champions, the fortunes of Mathewson and the jewelry business climb together. But tragedy soon intervenes. Mathewson develops health problems related to his exposure to gas in World War I, while a Kapp brother, a gambler, becomes involved in the Black Sox scandal.  

Beloved

Beloved can be a confusing story at some times because it keeps going into flashbacks and memories that the characters are having, but for the most part it is easy to understand. Beloved starts off at the house which sethe( main character) lives in with her 18 year old daughter Denver and we learn that there is a spirt in the house, which Is that of beloved.(sethes baby that died). Paul D stops by Sethes house and he meets her daughter Denver. The two of them chat about many things from the past. Paul D is one of the brothers that came from Sweet home. This was a kentucky slave house, which sethe also comes from. At one point the house starts shaking ( from the spirit of beloved). When paul d gets to close with sethe the spirt must not like that. He takes sethe up to bed and denver gets mad because its like he took her mom away. Perhaps he has some feelings for the mom. Sethe and Pauld D are very close with eachother in bed. This makes them think of salvery and they recall earlier times in their life. Sethe thinks about her marriage with halle ( pauld d’s brother) and how it all happened. As the stories goes on an important flashback is recalled. Denver while outside recalls the time she saw her mom kneeling in prayer besides a white dress. Denver loves hearing the story behind this and we get to hear the story that is going through denvers head but from her mothers voice. It’s the story about how she almost died when carrying denver but then found a white woman , Amy who helped her through pregnancy. Paul D wants to live with Sethe for now, and questions whether or not Denver will mind. Denver a few days later asks Paul in a rude way basically how long he is staying for. She gets scolded for this and Paul remains. He takes them to a carnival to try to ease the tension. During the carnival all that sethe can picture is the 3 of them In the shawdows holding hands. Maybe they can become a family after all? On the way back from the carnival they notice a young woman outside near sethes house. She seems sick, so they invite her to come in. The girls name is beloved which seems to be very werid, sense that’s the name of the dead child. Denver takes care of her. The young woman (beloved ) becomes very clingy towards sethe;she keeps asking her many random questions and likes to hear stories. Paul D belives that there is a werid glow to beloved and begins to question her. Beloved ends up choking on the dinner and is taken upstairs. The adults then begin to talk about halle and how he mistreated sethe by leavin her. Lastly, the story goes into another flashback of how sethe gave birth to denver and how amy helped her out.

Slaughterhouse five

Slaughterhouse Five First Half

Kurt Vonnegut starts off by telling us how he is writing a book “Slaughterhouse Five” but is having trouble remembering what happened. He figures that if he goes to visit his old friend Bernhard V. O’Hare, together they can recollect enough war stories to allow Kurt to write his novel. So he gets there and is given a cold welcome by Bernhard’s wife. After much discussing with Bernhard about the war, Kurt finally finds out why Mary, Bernhard’s wife, as been acting so coldly towards him. She was worried that Kurt’s book would encourage war and in turn kill more young boys. So Kurt assured her it wouldn’t and they quickly became friends.

Billy Pilgrim starts off as a young scrawny boy who is getting ready to go off to war. However his father dies then his mother dies and finally his sister all as he goes off to war. He then finds him self surviving a plane crash and being rescued by three men. One of them is Roland Weary who is wearing many excessive layers of clothing to the point where even his face isn’t visible. He carries a triangular knife for a more gruesome death of the victim. Weary tells stories about how he used to trick people into being friends with him just to beat them up and make himself feel better. The other two men are scout infantry who by the way they act and control themselves clearly have much experience behind enemy lines. Weary is a bit nutty but thrives on being the hero by rescuing the deadbeat soldier Pilgrim. Pilgrim lets the three know several times that they can go on without him but Weary insists on keeping him. So eventually Pilgrim just loses consciousness and becomes “lost in time”.

Pilgrim just appears randomly in different points in his life ranging from his birth to and including his death. In this another side story begins where he goes back to where the aliens from Tralfamador abducted him and taught him about time and how these aliens view time in a completely different way. Instead of seeing things as happening one at a time like humans do, they see everything at once so there is never surprise. They he comes back to the soldiers and finally the two scouts ditch Pilgrim and Weary fearing that Weary and Pilgrim will slow them down. Weary hates Pilgrim from then on. They hear gunshots in the distance and the two scouts have been killed.

Pilgrim gets unstuck in time again and visits more time periods from his life. He again goes back to the Tralfamadorians and learns more about how they see things but looking at their books. He comes back to Weary just to be captured and thrown in a line of other captured soldiers.

The line of soldiers is taken for such a long walk that Weary’s feet are injured badly. They finally are forced onto trains and the narrator talks about how rough it was in the train having to deal with going to the bathroom, eating, and sleeping. People took turns sleeping and Billy happened to be the guy in charge of emptying the bathroom bucket. Weary was in the train in front of Billy and made the other people say they would get revenge on Billy Pilgrim if he died. And he did, along with Billy’s friend the hobo and another friend in the train across from him. They finally arrive to the camp where a bunch of Russians have cleaned up the place and everyone is given a jacket. Billy’s just so happens to be very feminine which he finds out later was just so he could be made fun of. He ends up in a doctors office being consoled by a friend who he knows is going to die.

Then he has another flashback. It is after the war and he is in the mental ward and his mother visits. He feels so bad that she put so much effort into bringing him up and he doesn’t even want to be alive. Then his rich fat fiancé visits and he still can’t believe that he was so desperate that he proposed to her. She however clearly cares about him and tries to help him but he just denies her saying he has what he needs.

"Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World"

First, in order for anything to make sense at all, some things need to be explained.
The System – Powerful corporation controlling just about everything (like a government).
The Factory – The Anti-System.
Calcutecs – People experimented on and trained to make calculations, sort data, shuffle data, read code, and do most anything with numbers. They also have the ability to separate their minds into two and use them independently. They also work for the System.
Semiotecs – Fallen Calcutecs who also work for the Factory.
INKlings – Beasts that live within the underground of the city, and don’t like sound.


The novel is split into two stories, alternating between chapters, but both intertwine somehow. It’s not clear whether or not the protagonist in both stories is the same man. The first story is considered Hard-Boiled Wonderland” while the other is considered “The End of the World.”

"Hard-Boiled Wonderland" is set in a modern day world, in a large city in Japan. The protagonist here is a Calcutec. The story begins with the protagonist in an elevator on his way to an appointment with a client. He’s not sure whether or not he’s ascending up or moving down, because he doesn’t feel any motion or hear anything. To pass the time he decides to count coins he has in his pockets. He has one set of coins in one pocket and another set in his other. What he does is count them at the same time but keeps track of the amount of money in his right pocket with his right side of his brain, and keeps track of the amount of money in his left pocket with the left side of his brain. Finally he adds both sides together to get the total amount. He does this a second time, but gets a different amount, suggesting he made a mistake counting, which he has never done before. This foreshadows the events to come. Before he can count them a third time, the elevator doors open, and waiting in the corridor is a woman in a pink suit. Enter the “chubby-girl.” She guides him to his appointment. When they arrive at the office, they both enter. He notices that the room is very plain, but takes note of the large amount of paper clips on the desk.
The protagonist meets with his client, the Professor. The professor shows him his laboratory, and tells him what he does. The professor has invented a device that can change the volume of sound in the world. He has done so by studying various animal skulls, including human ones. He demonstrates the sounds the skulls make with metal tongs. This research has to be kept secret however. Then the professor has the protagonist code some data.
After the job is done, the protagonist leaves. But before he does, the chubby-girl, who he now knows is the Professor’s 17 year old granddaughter, hands him a hat box with something inside. After he gets home, he opens the hat box, and to his surprise finds an animal skull and a pair of metal tongs.
The following day the protagonist researches information on the skull. He goes to the library to get some books, and again notices many paper clips on the librarian’s desk. After his research, and with the help of the librarian whom he convinced to visit him, he came to the conclusion that it must have belonged to a unicorn. He doesn’t quite believe it but there was no other way to explain the small, rough indentation in the center of the horse-head shaped skull. He also learned that there was a report of a unicorn skull that was once dug up near the beginning of World War I. But any trace of that skull disappeared. He believes he is now in possession of the very same skull.
The following morning, in the middle of the night, the protagonist gets a phone call from the Professor’s granddaughter. She tells him that her grandfather is missing and that the INKlings might have kidnapped him. He tries to meet with her, but she doesn’t show up.
Later that morning he is visited by two thugs, one giant of a man and one short guy. They tell him they know about him, the Professor, and the skull. They also tell him they’re not with the System or the Factory. They force him to cooperate with their plans and to not report them to the System. But before they leave, they trash his apartment, and cut his stomach open. The wound isn’t too deep, but plenty enough to need stitches. He then goes to the hospital to get stitches and returns home to his trashed apartment.
He returns to sleep but then is awakened by the Professor’s granddaughter, who tells him if they don’t hurry and find her grandfather “the End of the World will come.” She explains to him that her grandfather believes that he holds the key. She tells him how 25 of the 26 Calcutecs trained, had died a year and a half after their training due to some type of brain damage. He was the only one not dead, having some kind of immunity, which made him important. The protagonist and the Professor’s granddaughter set out to find her grandfather.

“The End of the World” takes place in a time not known. The protagonist here has just arrived in the Town. He is told he is at “the End of the World.” The Town isn’t too large, and is surrounded by a great Wall that nobody can pass. The only way in is through the West Gate which is guarded by the Gatekeeper. No one can enter with their shadow. When the protagonist first entered, he and his shadow were separated. The Gatekeeper watches over the shadows until they die. The Gate Keeper also lets in and out the Golden Beasts. The Golden Beasts are horse-like creatures with golden hair. They also have a horn in the center of their forehead, and they resemble a unicorn.
The protagonist is unsure as to why he even came to the Town, but just goes along with it. The Gatekeeper assigns the protagonist with the job of Dreamreader. He then stabs a knife into each of the protagonist’s eyeballs. But he doesn’t feel any pain. The Gatekeeper tells him that it is the mark of the Dreamreader, and that there is only one person assigned to one task. He tells the protagonist to wear a pair of tinted glasses at all times, to not go outside when the sun is out, and to report to the Library at six o’clock until about ten or eleven o’clock to read dreams every night.
On the protagonist’s first work night, he arrives at the Library and meets the Librarian. The protagonist can’t help but notice all of the paper clips on the desk, and also feels that he may have known this woman elsewhere, at another time, but neither has any recollection. The Librarian’s job is to help the Dreamreader. The Librarian brings out an animal skull. It resembles the head of the Golden Beasts. She shows him how to read dreams, and he does just as she shows him.
For awhile the protagonist does this, not knowing why exactly, and one day he meets his shadow working with the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper normally doesn’t let him talk to his shadow because he feels that shadows cause trouble. But when then Gatekeeper isn’t paying attention, the protagonist talks briefly with his shadow. His shadow asks him to draw a very detailed map of the Town and the surrounding Wall, and to deliver it to him at the end of the Fall season. He also warns him not to let anybody help him draw his map.
So, the protagonist goes about his work, and in his spare time he draws the map. He explores the Town and everything inside the Wall. During this time, the protagonist begins to gain feelings for the Librarian. When the protagonist finishes the map, he slips it to his shadow.

Beloved

The story begins by explaining the members of the family and their background. It takes place in Ohio and since the characters in the book are ex-slaves, the main issue deals with slavery. At the beginning of the book we find out that a ghost of baby Suggs is haunting Sethe and her daughter Denver. Her other children, Howard and Buglarran away from home to get away from the ghost. Denver spends most of her time playing in her secret spot in the woods where she can hide and play house. Meanwhile Sethe is beginning to spend more time with Paul D and keeps asking him how long he is going to stick around for becuase she doesn't approve of ex-slaves loving her child, however when she see's their shadow on the ground at the carnival, it shows them holding hands happily. On the way back from the carnival when peeing outside they meet a women who tells them her name is Beloved, which shockes Sethe and Denver. The reason for shocking them is becuase on the babies grave stone due to lack of time and money, the only word engraved was "Beloved." The part of the book that I am at now, Sethe and Beloved are becoming close friends. They see eachother when Sethe is on her way back from work and Sethe is beginning to enjoy the attention that she is recieving.

No Country For Old men

No Country for old men starts out by remembering Bells first ever arrest. The psychotic killer is on death row and is about to face his death. He has no emotion on his face he doesnt even show remorse.The story is about Mexican and American drug users and sellers and a regular old texas boy. The Sheriff gets called to the scene of the murder and just doesn't know what to do or say.He knows its not something they have seen before. He then goes to the Sheriffs and they are trying to keep the murder under control before the violence escalates. The whole story is based through Bell. He doesn't understand what has happened to the country. When he had first became a police officer he claimed all he had to do was break up fights. There were no guns pulled on officers. Bell feared for his life now.
Llewlyn Moss is just a innocent character in the book. He had a gun just to go and hunt for Antelope. He goes out one morning and he sees a drug deal gone bad. He doesnt contact the police though, which I thought was really weird. Instead he took the 2 million dollars back to his trailer. He came upon 4 dead bodies and a bunch of fire arms too. He goes back to his traler and hides the money under a bed in a guest room. He sleeps with his wife and gets up in the middle of the night and takes his gun and returns to the scene of the crime. He goes to help the man that was in trouble instead he finds 2 men that worked for the drug dealer and Chigurh reaady too kill him. Moss after a long night of running and dodging bullets goes back to his trailer and gets his wife and leaves town for good.
the sheriff is now trying to find Mossa and Chigurh before something bad happened.
Chigurh then kills all the dealers men and all that happened was a shot to the leg. He feels expectidly lucky.
After everything carson wells gets hired to kill and Chigurh . Wells finds Moss and warns him that Chigurgh is out to kill Moss. Moss being a guys believes that he can avoid Chigurgh.
Moss doesn't understand that Chigurgh will do anything to get his money back even kill his wife before he got to Moss. Chigurgh wants Moss dead and he will kill the most important people in his life to get to Moss.

summary 1. Slaughterhouse-five

The Novel Slaughterhouse-Five was written in 1968 by Kurt Vonnegut, who based this book on his experiences in World War II. As a prisoner of war, Vonnegut survived the Dresden, Germany firebombing only because he was stationed in a meat house underground. In the novel, however, Vonnegut does not use real names and the main character Billy Pilgrim is boy from Ilium, New York.
Billy Pilgrim, born in 1922, is a funny-looking, weak high school student, who enrolls in optometry school in Ilium, New York. Before his second year of school, Billy was drafted in to the army to fight in World War II. Billy’s father was killed in a hunting accident just days before Billy ships overseas to join an infantry in Luxembourg. Fighting the Battle of the Bugle in Belgium and is shortly taken prisoner while wondering behind German lines with three other men. Just before his capture, he begins to experience his shifting of time.
Billy Pilgrim has become “unstuck in time,” he travels from one period of his life to another at random times. He is unable to control his shifting of time and does not know where he’s going to end up next. The novel jumps back and forth in time and place. The story involves many deaths, from Billy’s family member s, to war soldiers, to dogs, to even champagne. Following each sentence involve death, Vonnegut uses the Line ‘So it goes.’
Billy is transported to Dresden in a crowded Boxcar with all the POW’s. Upon his arrival, he and the other privates were treated to a feast by a group of fellow prisoners. Billy begins to annoy the other passengers, and they make him stand to sleep or he does not sleep at all on his trip to Dresden. Billy suffers a breakdown, and is hit with a shot of morphine which sends him traveling through time yet again. Soon he and the other Americans arrive in Dresden. They arrive to their camp which happens to be an old meat house which was turned into a prisoner camp. The prisoners must work for their lives by doing various labors. One night, Allied forces bomb the entire city of Dresden, Germany. They dropped incendiary bombs to create a huge firestorm which incinerated most of the occupants of Dresden. Billy along with the other prisoners survived in their air tight compartment. They surface to the city and find a completely destroyed city, where they are forced to dig up dead bodies from the rubble. Days past and Billy is sent home from the war.
A few of Billy’s time travels include ones like these. After his daughter’s wedding in 1967, Billy admits to a radio talk show of being kidnapped from a saucer of two-foot-high aliens, who called themselves Tralfmadorians from the plant Tralfmadore. He was taken to their planet where time seems to stand still. A year there, he could return to not miss a second on Earth. Billy’s daughter seems to think Billy is senile and making things up. Another, in 1968 Billy gets into a chartered plane to go to an optometry conference in Montreal. The plane crashes down and Billy is the only one standing.

First Half Summary

No Country for Old Men is story of Mexican and American drug lords, a Texas good old boy caught in the middle, a psychotic serial killer, and a sheriff trying to hold off the violence before it engulfs his county. Everyone thinks that they have complete control of their own situation, but outside forces and pure stubbornness are bound to put a schism in each individual’s plans. Thus far it is a violent adventure into the human mind, posing the question; how far will man go to get what he views as his?
The novel opens with Sheriff Bell recounting the one and only person he has ever arrested and sent to death. This sets the tone of Bell’s monologues, he often ponders what has happened to mankind, how much different the human mind and action are compared to when he was younger, and about people’s soul’s.
Anton Chigurh (the relentless, merciless, psychotic serial killer) has been arrested and is being processed in a small county police office by the deputy (the only other person in the building). Chigurh manages to slip his cuffed hands from behind his back and strangles the deputy using the chains holding his hands together. He then steals the cop car, pulls over an innocent driver, kills him, and steals his car; commencing the start of the bloodbath. This is the first place where Chigurh’s mystery killing machine is revealed; he appears to carry an oxygen tank with the tube running into his arm. But Sheriff Bell and his deputy figure out that it is a stun gun which is used in a slaughterhouse. Chigurh places his hand upon someone’s forehead and the end of the tube pokes out from his wrist, where he then fires it and the victim has a big hole in their head without an exist wound stumping forensic labs.
Llewellyn Moss, a Texas good old boy is hunting antelope one morning and happens to stumble upon a drug deal gone horribly wrong. Instead of contacting the authorities like a sane person would when stumbling upon four bodies he investigates the site. He finds multiple firearms, a great deal of Mexican black tar heroin, and two million dollars. He takes the money, wipes down the scene, and returns home. Moss returns to the scene later that night to aide the man that was still clinging to life. Moss instead finds the drug dealer’s men and Chigurh ready to kill him. After an extremely long night of dodging bullets Moss returns home. He and his wife then leave town and Moss set’s out on the run.
Moss knows it will only be a matter of time before they find him. Chigurh kills the dealer’s men and set’s out for Moss on his own. Paying his trailer a visit and then tracking him down to the motel he is staying in. In this time Sheriff Bell has found the scene and is now trying to find Moss and Chigurh before it is to late, even talking to his wife which gave him no further clues.
Chigurh finally catches up to Moss at the Eagle Hotel. Moss hears him coming and prepares himself. Moss ends up just barely escaping the hotel but not without injury. He sustains a buckshot bullet from Chigurh and three others from Chigurh or the group of the dealer’s men. Moss stumbles into a park and pays a man to take him to the hospital. Chigurh kill’s nearly every one of the dealer’s men and some hotel employees merely because they were there. Chigurh, himself only sustained one bullet to the leg.
After the bloodbath is over the dealer hires Carson Wells and Vietnam Veteran turned “settler of accounts” or hit man to track and kill Chigurh, return his money and drugs. Wells finds and visits Moss warning him how dangerous Chigurh is and offers to help and even give part of the drug money if he cooperates. Moss still believes that he can beat Chigurh and declines help from Wells. But Wells leaves a lasting impression, stating that Chigurh wouldn’t think twice about killing his wife before he came for him. Even if Moss gave Chigurh the money, he would still be killed, that is the type of man Chigurh is.

No country for old men

The first chapter starts off with someone talking about a murderer killing a fourteen year old girl and how he gets executed. Chigurgh, a convict, is left handcuffed in the Deputy's office. When the deputy is not watching, Chigurgh kills him by choking him with the chains of his handcuffs. Lewelyn Moss is a young man who is married to Carla Jean who is nineteen. They have been married for three years and live in a trailer. While out hunting, Moss comes along two vehicles with several dead mexicans. One mexican is alive and wants water but Moss pays no attention to him. Moss looks around the vehicles and finds heroin and a briefcase with 2 million dollars. He finds several guns and decides to take the H&K with him. Along with the H&K, he takes the two million back home with him. Moss wakes up in the middle of the night and goes back to the vehicles. He also brings some water for the thirsty Mexican. However, he is too late and the Mexican is already dead. Also when he gets there, he disovers that the guns he left behind are gone. He soon discovers he is not the only one here and he hides from a truck. The men in the truck come after him. Moss swims through the river to safety. The two men still managed to hit him in the arm with a buckshot. Moss manages to walk and find a taxi to take him to his wife. He and his wife agree that they must leave the trailer and go to Odessa where Carla Jean's mother lives. Meanwhile, Chigurh finds Moss's truck and the dead men in the vehicles. The local Sheriff, Bell, and his assistant, Wendall, hear word about the dead Mexicans in the vehicles. They saddle up horses and proceed to the crime scene to survey what happened. Chirgurh, goes to Moss, trailer looking for him. It is too late because Moss and his wife have already left. Moss leave his wife in Odessa and get a room at a motel. He takes the money and hides it in an air duct. Then he carefully listens for any sign of danger and then goes to sleep. While Moss was sleeping, Chigurh is getting closer as he pulls into the parking lot of the motel. Chirgurh discovers a couple of Mexicans in one of the motel rooms and shoots them before they even knew what happened. Moss no longer felt safe in his room in the motel, so he goes onto another motel called the Eagle Pass. He bribes the night clerk with one hundered dollars to call his room if anyone else checks into the motel. During the night Moss hears a man in his room and threatens him with a gun. He leaves the motel but Chigurh is in the balcony above the hotel and shoots Moss. With blood pouring out everywhere Moss pays some boys for a coat to cover himself up. Moss makes his way to the hospital. Bell drives up to Odessa to question Carla Jean. He asks her if she knows of her husbands whereabouts or anything else. She knows nothing. While Moss is in the hospital Carson Wells, visits him to talk about all that is going on. Wells tells Moss that Chirgurh will not stop looking for him even if he does get the money.

First 1/2 Summary

Slaughterhouse Five
The first half of the book is already really confusing. The way the author goes back and forth between each setting makes it much harder to read than a normal novel. The character Billy Pilgrim is traveling through time between his present time, World War II, and some where in 1967. At first Billy Pilgrim goes to the house of one of the soldiers he fought the war with, immediately the wife of the soldier obviously doesn’t like him. Billy Pilgrim doesn’t know why until after he discussed the war with Bernard O’Hare. The wife didn’t mind Billy Pilgrim she was just angry with the war in general. She wasn’t happy that they were trying to remember what happened just so Billy could write a book about it. Remembering what happened during the war brings Billy back to Germany and he goes on to describe what Dresden was like. He and another soldier were captured by the Germans and were forced to give up their shoes. A photographer saw this and took a picture of it for the Germans and wrote an article about how the Americans were so rich but couldn’t properly fit their army. Traveling back to 1945 Billy Pilgrim gets married and they have two children together, Barbara and Robert. From there he goes back to school and becomes an optometrist. From there Barbara gets married and finds out that her father has gone mentally insane. In the mean time his son was sent into the army and his wife died from carbon monoxide poisoning while he was away. He begins to publish letters to the newspaper about how he was captured by aliens in 1967 called Tralfamadorians. Going back to World War II the soldiers keep on fighting together and continue to joke about a picture one of them has of a woman in a provocative position. Once they are captured by the Germans the picture is taken away and they are laughed at. Then Roland Weary get to Luxemburg and see the way the other soldiers are being lined up by rank and they meet a dying colonel named Wild Bob. From there the story keeps going back and forth between the war and more present time for Billy Pilgrim.

ONLY THREE PEOPLE...

Have worked through their novel selections via this blog, and every person in class was suppose to have this finished and then have the novels in hand for class today.

Professor Kevin Meek

ONLY THREE PEOPLE...

Have worked through their novel selections via this blog, and every person in class was suppose to have this finished and then have the novels in hand for class today.

Professor Kevin Meek

Slaughterhouse

Joe, I was thinking of doing the same book.

anyone else?

I'm going to read Slaughterhouse Five. Does anyone else want to read that as well?

Vagina Monologues

I actually did not have a chance to go and see this play because I worked both days, but I was able to watch it on a recording of the performnce done at my friends college.Overall, I found it to be pretty funny but at the same time educating.In the scene My Vagina was My Village, I learned alittle about what the Bosnian women went through. The play retold things about women that some already know.It went into detail about rape,a subject that most already understand.The writers campaign has helped to establish things to support violence against women.V-day was started because of this monologue.Overall,I liked how different individuals spoke about different parts of the play.It originally was a monologue with Eve, who told the entire play but adding more people helped to understand that many females go through problems witheir vagina and being abused.

STEP ONE: CHOOSE A NOVEL

Dear Class,

Please choose one novel from the reading list I provide at the bottom of this page. The only rules I place on your choice is that at least one other person must read the same novel, and there is a limit of five people per novel (I'm sorry - it will be first come first serve based on your blog entries.)

The list contains contemporary and classic novels from authors with varied backgrounds, histories and focuses. I tried my best to accommodate your interests while also considering the varied type of writing and analysis this project will require. Good luck and enjoy.

1. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

2. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

3. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

5. The Celebrant by Eric Rolfe Greenberg

6. Midnight's Children by Salmon Rushdie

7. The Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

8. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

9. Beloved by Toni Morrison

10. Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes

11. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

12. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Vagina Monologues

I went to the Vagina Monologues feeling like that it might be some play that would start out funny, and then once you're "hooked" they slam all this "stop the violence" stuff in your face. I was wrong though. It was funny at times, and some times it made you think. I suppose the comical parts were to put you at ease (or make you uncomfortable), so that the entire show wasn't just a boring rant on how "violence should be stopped because..." Sometimes the stories were very vivid, like My Vagina Was My Village. It was shocking what happened to the woman, and if it weren't so vividly depicted, the point may not have quite reached everyone. Everyone knows about rape, and how it's bad, but sometimes some people need to hear every little detail to know how bad it really is. It makes you sick to think things like this have happened. But this is what Eve Ensler is trying to stop. She wrote the Vagina Monologues to help stop the violence and abuse toward women. She wants everyone to be aware of these things and take it seriously, and not just shove matters aside with little details.

Vagina Monologues

Going into the Vagina Monologues, after seeing a video clip online, I was not very excited. I was expecting to see some women talk about their vaginas and what makes their vaginas angry and sad and so on. Well I was correct. It started out talking about these random stories where womens vaginas felt sad and gross and alone (kinda wierd). It went on to give an example of a 72 year old woman who talked about her lonely vagina and first orgasm. That was completely unnecessary. They definatly could have gotten the same point across in the show without that short story. But all in all, I did get that it was about protecting women from abuse and mutilation. The founder, Eve Ensler, started the vagina monologues with the intent of ending abuse against women around the world and specifically in Africa. Thus far, her organization and the show have done a lot to help this in many countries around the world. The show although mostly comedic at time did show the seriousness of the whole situation and gave out statistics and ways for people to help the cause if they can. I just wish the show better reflected how bad this problem was instead of just constantly making jokes about vaginas.

Vagina Monologes

Eve, the author, explains through her monologues the duality of women. For example, how their vaginas give them empowerment yet they have insecurities about it. It causes them great pleasure yet other times causes them great pain. Sometimes they use it to exploit themselves. For example, to get what they want i.e. money or status in society. Other times they get raped or men use them for sexual needs and to hurt them emotionally. The purpose of the monologues is to make men and women aware of the struggle women face with their vaginas whether it be in America, Africa (where they are circumsized), or a third world country (where women are raped and cannot freely express themselves). These presentations of the Vagina Monologes have been going on for ten years to help make people more aware of the issues women face in society. The Vagina Monologes will not end until violence against women ceases.

Vagina Monologues

From a guys point of view the monologues were not as weird as i thought they were going to be; especially since i found out my old english teacher was going to in it. At first i thought they would be girls talking about girl things. Come to find out it didn't make me feel as awkward as i thought it would. The playwright had many different stories from different woman about different events that may happen to a girl in her lifetime. The show had a lot of funny parts that helped almost give the show a comfortable vibe on some serious subjects. Although i found myself dazing off in the middle overall the show i thought went very well and kept the audiences attention pretty well for a show called "The Vagina  Monologues". The show almost seems to reflect Eve's emotions on the matter of voicing a woman's feeling on different woman's issues. This being the 10th anniversary of the playwright shows that it helps voice the opinions and emotions of woman in general.

Vagina MOnologues reaction

The Vagina Monologues was a unique presentation. It was a monologue through an author that was abused and not treated with respect as a woman and a child. Eve Ensler was abused and she was drinking herself to death. The monologues are a womens way to shout out about how she really feels and what she wants to say. The monologues a playwright off a book. There is so much emotion and even guys get involved in the play. I thought it was funny and interesting because everyone know that is what girls really think. Back in Eve's day she just wanted to let people know how she feels about being abused and used as a women. The whole play is based to get men and everyone to hear the movement against women and violence. She is a feminist and is fighting for their rights.

Questions

Page 89
1. As I read the first line I imagined a couple breaking up, and kissing each other goodbye. There seems to be no help to salvage their relationship. It seems very sad.

2. The next few lines make it seem as if this is what the author really wants, and this is for the best. He does not seem as upset about it, but rather liberated. The words “cleanly” and “freely” imply that it is a mutual thing and that there are no hard feelings between them.

3. I think he uses repletion of them breaking it off because it emphasizes his desire to end the relationship. Another reason for this repetition could be that he is trying to convince himself that that is what is best, but he might not really feel that way. I think the line that states that not one jot of love should remain means that he wants a clean break, so they can move on easier.

4. I would feel very abandoned and lonely if this poem was written to me, especially after line 8. If I love someone, even if the relationship is not working out, I would hope that we could remain friends.

5. My view of the poem changes in the last six lines, because it went from him being cold and just wanting to sever the ties to an understanding that maybe there was no hope for this relationship and that there was really nothing he could do. Using a person dieing as a parallel to their dieing love really showed that there was nothing you could do to revive this love.

6. The “you” in the poem is the author’s. This is made evident because of the person things he is saying and the use of us and our, to describe their relationship.

7. This changes my opinion of the poem because in the poem, the author makes it seem like he never wants to see or think about her again. It also makes the last line make sense, because from the death of their love, came life in the form of their deep friendship. When I first read that life may come out of it, I was a little confused, because it seemed like he didn’t want any communication with her.

Page 94
1. The first two paragraphs make me think of a calm afternoon relaxing in a hammock. I can imagine myself in a very similar scene feeling relaxed and happy with my dog resting under me. 2. It is a little unusual that the woman became the dogs protector since most people think of dogs as people’s protectors.

3. The next three paragraphs are very different then the first two. She is reflecting on a childhood memory that is not related to the first couple paragraphs. The mood is contrasting because is it a childhood memory from the zoo, as opposed to the relaxing first paragraphs.
4. The fact that she brings her hands to her chest makes me think that she is scared, and wants to protect herself.

5. Paragraphs 12-16 show that even when she was little, she has a fascination with and love for bears.

6. The fact that the woman constructs her own porch shows that she is independent and strong. When she moves her couch out onto the porch, it shows that she is very in touch with nature, and not afraid of the lingering bear. When the bear’s scent was described as a “terrible, rancid odor”, is foreshadowing for the bad things he does. The bear might be a male, because there is no man in the woman’s life as far as we know, and he serves that part.

7. The fact that this section shows what various cultures to do bears, is foreshadowing for the fact that there might be a coming danger, and we are going to find out what happens to the bear’s body in this culture.

8. The summer days are marked with an X because those are the days that the bear will be out of hibernation, and she will have to be very cautious.I thought that lines 32-41 were very grotesque and it was hard for me to believe that the woman would do this alone, and not call for help from some kind of animal control or something of that sort.

9. The final scene is surprising to me. I do not really understand why she is headed for the state line. She did not kill a person, but a dangerous beast, so I do not know why she is acting like a fugitive. I think that she is going to come back and dig up the claws as a reminder of her kill.

Poems and Questions

pg 96

1. I imagine the scene of a boyfriend and girlfriend kissing. At the end of the first line its a tone of seperation and sadness

2. His tone becomes more pure and the words "cleanly" and "free" suggests this.

3. There is a lot of repition because its a main point that the author is trying to get across. Theres an extreme decleration to clearly emphasize the couple is over and done with.

4. I would feel happy because it we meet again there is a chance something could develop

5. My view changed because it makes it much more sad that the love is portrayed as a dieing person and will never come back

6. The "you" is the authors significant other. The clues that suggest this are "cancel all our vows" and "loves latest breath".

7. It affects my response because i didnt know there was another person in the picture. I thought these two people in the poem were two lovers and didnt have a significant other.

Pg. 100

1.It brings to my mind a nice summer day sitting ourside with the sun shining and warm weather. Yes i can imagine myself in a similar scene. I would feel relaxed. I thought it was kind of awkward how she was the dog's protector.

2. Yes 3-6 does alter the mood. Instead of being calm and relexed its more of a jumpy/scary mood because bears and wolves are two scary animals.

3. The line, "her hands lift to cover her breasts" suggests she is in fear or shocked.

4. It made me feel that she loves bears and cares for them very much

5. It affects my response to the bears appearance because the bear might not look so scary after all. The bear being a him and not an it makes the bear seem more like a person and not an animal.

6 The readers sense of danger builds because it shows the fiercness of bears and how strong and powerful they can be.

7. Yes i believe the mark of an X on her calendar has to do with the bear. Its the days that she has seen the bear that she marks with an X.

8. My reaction is a very sad one. I think its sad how the bear died slowly. I dont think the bear had any intentions on hurting her at all.

questions (cont.)

1. After reading the first line, I imagine that two people are breaking up because of the "kiss and part" at the end of the line. The tone seems to be a helpless and sad one because the poem says that they only break up because they can't get help for their relationship.
2. The next three lines give off a more proud and independent tone. When he talks about being free and that this persons spouse can get no more from them... maybe because they were using them. He also states that he is glad with all his heart but that could also be the narrator trying to convince them self of it also. Maybe the narrator really doesn't want to leave their spouse but has no control over it.
3. Again I feel that the narrator is trying to convince them self that this is a good thing and that it would be great to be independent again. However, The narrator probably still loves their spouse but either they are going to die or have no control over where they are going. The narrator simply uses this line to show that they never want to see their spouse again because it makes him sad.
4. Actually it seems like maybe the spouse is dying... This would explain the line better. The narrator is so sad that their spouse is dying that they want to forget them but at the same time, they love them and still want a memory of them together. If that was said to me, I would be a little depressed...
5. The narrator is saying that even though their relationship is looking very grim, that maybe it can still be salvaged one day if their spouse does so choose to fix them self up a bit. However, t is a very depressing way to look at the whole thing.
6. You is maybe dying, maybe not. Also you seems to have a bad personality and doesn't treat the narrator like he or she would like to be treated. The narrator seems so happy to be breaking it off that i cant imagine that their spouse was any kind of a good person. However, the narrator could have seen a glimpse of good in them because they still think that their spouse can be good again as seen in the last line.
7. Maybe the whole thing was about losing her as a potential wife and gaining her as a friend. Everyone goes through that time when they like someone but that someone doesn't like them back... it hurts. This whole thing could be about his struggle to get over her and to just accept being a great friend for her.

Pgs. 88 - 94

Pg. 89

1.) As I read the first line, I imagine a person dying in the arms of another. At the end of the first line, I imagine the speaker is using a sad tone.

2.) After reading lines 2 - 4 I now perceive the speaker's tone as more happy now, and maybe sarcastic. The words "cleanly" and "free" suggest the speaker has a clear conscious and has nothing holding him back.

3.) The repetition is used because the speaker is happy about his decision and wants to make his point proven. The extreme declaration that not "one jot of former love" should remain is used because the speaker wants to pretend like the love never existed, and to not recall any pain or sorrow there might have been during the relationship.

4.) After line 8, I would feel a bit broken hearted. To be wanted to be forgotten by somebody would be quite depressing.

5.) My view of the relationship changes in the last six lines in that there was happiness in the relationship, bu now it is diminishing, or dying. Presenting "Love" as a dying person shows me that the speaker's love was not "undying," or he doesn't feel as strongly anymore.

6.) This "you" is the speaker's former lover. Clues that the poem gives about the character of "you" is that the speaker refers to "us" and "our." This suggests that the poem was intended for the former lover.

7.) The information affects my response to the poem in that the poem was probably written for Anne Goodere. After she married someone else, he may have wrote the poem as a reassurance to himself that their former relationship was now over. He might not have wanted to remember anything about it.

Pg. 94

1.) The associations the first two paragraphs bring to my mind are of relaxing and taking time to enjoy life. I can imagine myself in a similar scene, where I would feel very comfortable. The suggestion that she ended up more the dog's protector "than the other way around" makes me believe that the dog was either small, and/or skittish .

2.) Paragraphs 3 - 6 do alter the mood created by the first two paragraphs because it sets a scene of wild animals, rather than domesticated like the dog.

3.) The sentence, "Her hands lift to cover her breasts," suggests that she might be fragile, or maybe she just froze in fear. I expected her to get mauled by the bear here.

4.) Paragraphs 12 - 16 affect the reader's understanding of her attitude towards bears because they suggest that she has a love for bears.

5.) The construction of her porch, and the movement of her sofa onto the porch helped me imagine the bear as irritated and angry that she was moving into his territory. The bear's smell further influences the "beast" that I imagined the bear to be. As for the gender, I would assume that a female bear might be more territorial than a male bear.

6.) The reader's sense of danger builds in the seventh section because it displays the ferocity that bears can show.

7.) The summer days might be marked with an X because this might be the time in which she had sighted he bear, or is when the bear is out versus the winter when the bear would be hibernating.

8.) During paragraphs 32 - 41, I was surprised how well she handled the situation. I thought she might have freaked out, causing the bear to go into a frenzy. But she managed to take down the bear once and for all, despite the suffering the bear received due to her poor accuracy. But better the bear than her suffering from deep gashes from the bear's claws, I suppose.

9.) I didn't find the final sentence surprising. She obviously wants the claws as a sort of trophy, however I wonder why she doesn't just take the claws right away instead of waiting until the next summer.

page 88-94

page 89
1. I imagine a scene with two people ending their relationship. hopefully in a postive manner, with a kiss and a simple part of ways. Tone is calm, and relaxing as if the author is ready for this breakup.
2. The speaker seems to be sure of his decision, has an optimistic view towards the part. The words 'cleanly' and 'free' simply support his decision making, that this is the right thing to do.
3. The speaker using this repetition probably to convince himself that the decision he is making is the right one.
4. I'd feel like crap. as if the relationship wasn't worth anything. maybe just a big waste of time.
5. The last six lines make the love that they might have shared at one point look all deathly and intense. The love was clearly suffering at this point and the relationship couldnt go on any longer.
6. The 'you' in the poem has got to be his ex-lover. The speaker talks of vows and all clues that relate to some type of relationship.
7. I feel the poem was definitely about his ex-girlfriend, probably to try to get over her and move on, even though he really didn't.


page 93-94
1. I imagine a relaxing place, quiet and calm. I'd feel free and chill out, enjoy the great outdoors on my hammock. I'd want the dog there for my protection, but I think i could make in on my own, even protecting the dog too.
2. The mood changed from more of a relaxed quiet feel to a Zoo-like atmosphere. Literally describing a zoo and all the aminals in it.
3. I feel she grabs her heart because she felt a sense of danger. Immediately reaches for her heart because it starts beating faster.
4. Her originally feeling towards bears, was I thought more of a loving feeling, but things seemed to change when she lost her own bear. Perhaps she feels if she can't have her bear, no other bear deserves to live.
5. She built the porch to feel more protected from the bear. That nasty smells just strengthens her hatred to him. And is a good warning sign to let her know when the bear is around. The Bear is refered to as a him probably because males are scarier and more intimidating, and thats immidiately what she thinks of.
6. The readers sense of danger increasing because of the stories of crazy bear attacks and proves how dangerous bears can be.
7. She marks the summer months with an X probably because thats when the bear does his attacking and its not the most pleasant time.
8. paragraphs 32-41 were intense. She turnes into this bear fighting machine and shoots and kills the bear. Kind of a slow and nasty looking scene. I personally would b terrified go against a bear.
9. It didn't neccesarily surprise me, but I definitely now know that this girl is out of her mind. Thats the wierdest thing I've ever heard.

questions

pg. 96
1. When I read the first line I imagined two people having one last kiss, before they went their different ways. I think the tone that the writer uses in that line was a very sad and heartbroken tone.
2. As I read the next three lines I saw the writer use a different tone, one that seemed like he was happy he wasn't seeing his lover anymore, becuase he uses the words "cleanly" and "free" as if once he said goodbye to this person he would live freely without anyone being a burden to him.
3.The speaker keeps repeating that the lovers should break it off because he is tring to convince the reader that there is no love left at all between them and by using the phrase, "not one jot of former love should remain", he is reinforcing that idea.
4. If I were the one being addressed in this poem, after I read line 8 i would be kind of angery at the writer for repeating the fact that the writer does not feel any resent for breaking it off.
5. My veiw of the relationship after I finished the poem was that they must of had a good one, but it eventually got dull and their love started to slowly die, like someone on their death bed.
6. I think the "you" in this poem is the person he used to love, and I know this becuase he uses words like "us" and "our".
7. Knowing this information chnaged my view of the poem becuase now I think that he was pretending that they were lovers and they broke it off, to make himself feel better about himself, becuase she married someone else.

pg. 100
1. The first two paragraphs brings to my mind a happy scene in the summer that takes place in a yard with a little girl laying in a hammock and a dog lying next to her. I could imagine myself in a similar scence and I would feel pretty stress free. When the writer suggest that the girl is more the dogs protector then the other way around I feel like the dog is lazy and a small dog.
2. Paragraphs 3-6 slightly change the mood of the poem because it introduced some wild animals that present a more ominous feeling in the poem.
3. This sentence tells me that the girl was scared when she first saw the bear, becuase it spooked her and she was not expecting it.
4. Paragraphs 12-16 shows that the girl likes bears, becuase she has a teddy bear that she sleeps with and doesnt like to be without.
5. The bear appears more mean becuase he destroys the sofa on the porch, which represents a cozy setting. Whether the bear was a he or she, it did not effect my attitude towards the bear.
6. As the reader reads the seventh section they relize how dangerous and powerful bears are, becuase it tells how one sweep of the bears paw can split a skull open and how bears have attacked and killed humans unmercingly.
7. I think the summer days marked with an X are the days she expects to see the bear and to be prepared to defend herself incase the bear attacks her.
8. When I read lines 32-41 I was shocked that the girl actually shot and killed the bear, and it was not a clean kill in any matter, becuase the bear died slowly and painfully. At one point I felt bad for the bear becuase it was experiancing so much pain as it was dying.
9. The last line does not surprise me very much because she is going to take the bears claws, as proof that she killed the bear. The claws will also act as a symbol which will symbolize the bear and she will always keep it cose to her.

Questions page 89 and 93-94

Page 89
1. Reading the first line, I imagine two lovers, one or both of which is dying soon. They may be breaking up or parting ways. At the end of the first line, the speaker's tone seems to be sad and that of a realization that whatever is going on might be for the best.
2. The speaker's tone in lines 2-4 sound as he is angry and purposely speaking to someone in a hurtful way. The words "cleanly" and "freely" suggest that the speaker is glad to not have whatever burden he had. As if he is washing his hands of something or someone.
3. I think that the speaker doesn't actually want to break up and all the repetition is a way for him to try to convince himself that they should break up. When he declares that not "one jot of former love" should remain he is trying to take a stand, be strong, and convince both himself and his lover that they need to break up and forget about each other.
4. If I was the person being addressed in this poem, I would feel sad and betrayed that the person that I love wants to stop loving me.
5. In the last six lines, you kind of feel bad that this couple is ending their relationship. Presenting "Love" as a dying person shows that the love that this couple have for each other is real. By representing it as a dying person who recovers, it is a romantic symbol and emotionally moving.
6. The "you" in the poem is the speaker's significant other. The speaker says "let us kiss and part," "you get no more from me," "cancel all our vows," "when we meet," and "either of our brows." All of these quotes from the speaker include another person, who seems to be his girlfriend.
7. The information about Michael Drayton's love for Anne Goodere brings this poem to life. Now that we know of Drayton's life, we can see that he is the speaker in the poem. Your heart goes out to him and you feel bad that he didn't end up with his love, Anne Goodere.

Pages 93-94
1. When I read the first two paragraphs, I thought of summers with my elementary school friends. We would go swimming, play, and lie in the hammock for hours. I've never had a dog so I wouldn't know about the protective relationship between an owner and her dog.
2. Paragraphs 3-6 change the mood from a relaxed, summery, sunbathing mood to a timid, unsafe wilderness mood. The third section creates the contrasting mood of a hard working, independent woman, relaxing, but then frightened by a bear.
3. The sentence "Her hands lift to cover her breasts" make the woman looks dainty and fragile. I expected a knight in shining armor to protect her from this beast.
4. Paragraphs 12-16 show the reader that she has a soft spot for bears because she had one as a child and her mother threw it away and burnt it in the incinerator.
5. The fact that this woman is building her own porch leads the reader to believe that she is a strong, independent woman and the fact that she puts her couch outside on the porch shows that she likes the outdoors and is not threatened by the wildlife. The woman says that the bear smelt terrible and rancid, which leads me to believe that the bear is a bad character in the story. The bear's sex may make up for the fact that there isn't a dominant male in the story or in the woman's life.
6. The men in the different cutlers described are the ones that hunt to bear and it leads the reader to believe that the woman will not be able to handle the bear if need be.
7. Bears hibernate in the winter so the woman may be counting down the days until the bears go back into hibernation for the winter. This would be when they are not a threat to her.
8. I could definitely believe that this woman had the power to kill the bear because all through out the story, she was a really independent and strong woman, but I felt bad that it took so long to kill it and that he suffered so much.
9. I think that the final sentence is a little surprising because it confused me a little. I don't understand if she wants the claws as a souvenir or as something to honor the bear.

Questions p. 89, 93-94

P. 89
1) I picture a scene of two people parting ways after a long relationship. The tone that the speaker is using seems like they are almost giving up on the other person.
2) The next couple fo lines sugests that the tone is somewhat negative and regretful. The words cleanly and free are giving the speaker hope.
3) The idea of repatition is to make sure that the speaker is letting the reader fully understand their statement.
4) If this poem was written towards me it would not make me feel good about myself or about the past relationship with the speaker.
5) The last six lines change my views about relationships becuase it makes it seem like the thing that the people in this particular relationship is dying.
6) The poem is directed towards "you". I believe that the "you" can represent anyone going through similar struggles that the author is going through.
7) This explanation does not affect my responce to the poem however it does clarify the poem overall.

P. 93-94
1) I cannot picture myself in a simlar scene because I am not really an animal person and I do not have a dog. I was confused at what the dog was growling at. She is the dogs protector becuase she is it's owner and friend.
2) The mood changes to a darker mood by mentioning new animals. To me, a dog is a more friendly and happy animal and wolves seem like less friendly and darker animals, even though they are kept in a zoo in the scene.
3)This sentence creates the expectation that she is attempting to cover heself with only her hands.
4) These paragraphs explain her former relaitonships with bears so now the reader will understand.
5) The movement of the sofa onto the porch makes the bears appearence seem more realistic. The bears sex allows the reader to understand that the bear is not an "it" the bear is real to her.
6)The fear of danger builds becuase this part of the reading shows that something could possibly happen to the bear.
7)The summer days are marked with an x becuase that is when bears can be scene.
8) I did not predict the ending would turn out so violently at the end of this reading becuase at the beginning everything was happier.
9) The final sentence was more emotional than i had anticiapted however it is very symbolic and meaningful.

Answers from pgs 88-94

Pg. 89
1.) What I imagine when I read the first line is a man and a woman after they just got into a fight and they are about to break up. The man wants one last kiss before they leave and never see each other again. The speaker's tone is of accepting and realizing that it would be best for them to break up.
2.) In lines 2-4 the speaker seemed to be sure of his decision about breaking up and the words "Cleanly and free" suggest the tone of assurance and that this is his definite decision and what he really wants to do.
3.) The author repeats often to let the reader know how he feels about the whole situation. He says that there should be no love remaining because he feels that it is better for the both of them if they went their seperate ways. On the other hand he could be repeating it to try to convince himself that this really is the right decision.
4.)I would feel as if the whole relationship was not even worth it , like he never really did love me anyways. After that line I would agree right then to end the relationship.
5.) The last six lines makes the relationship seem like there was love at one time but now it is gone. Presenting "love" as a dying person seems like the love is ending like a life is ending. The love was suffering and now it was time to end.
6.) I beleive that the"you" in this poem is the person who he once was in love with and now is falling out of love with. The clues in the poem lead me to believe that the "you" character drove the author away by doing something to him.
7.) I think that he wrote this poem to get over her and it also shows me that maybe she was the one who oringnally wanted to end the relationship.

Pgs 93-94
1.)The first two paragraphs lead me to believe that the hammock is a place where a girl and her dog go. It seems to be a place where she takes the dog and the dog would get scared and startled by what is around him. She makes it known that at this place she is more the protector then the dog. him. I could see my self in this situation but i might not be so comfortable if I had to be the protector and my dog was not able to protect me.
2.)Yes paragraphs 3-6 alter the mood made by the first two paragraphs because the tone went from going to a nice place to literally a zoo which changes the mood and creates more of an uproar and changes the characters mood.
3.) The line "Her hands lift to cover her breast" makes me think about her trying to protect herself. When someone lifts and puts their hands on their chest it is usually a reaction that they are either shocked at somthing or scared of whats going to happen. I was thinking that her hands were across her breast as a reaction to being shocked or scared.
4.) The paragraphs talk about how much she loved her bear stuffed animal but her mother threw it out. One reason why she might have wanted to kill the bear would be because she could never have her stuffed animal.She wanted to kill the bear because it reminded her of her stuffed bear tha she use to love. These paragraph show us how much she cared for her bear.
5.) Her movement of the sofa on the porch makes it seem like the bear wasnt big and scary enough for her to not be on her porch. The smell of the fresh paint might be a reason the bear would stay away.
6.)In the seventh section, the readers sense of danger starts to build because we are told about all the bad things that the bears have done and destroyed. We are told about the killings and this creates a creepy and scary tone for the readers.
7.) In this story she marks the summer days with X's because those are they days she wants to forget. The X's stand for all the bad times she had and wished never happened. In the summer she use to visit her aunt and all the noises from the animals around her use to keep her awake at night.
8.) My first reaction was that i was scared for her. When she only wounded him and she couldnt get a good shot i was nervous that somthing bad was going to happen to her.
9.) In a way i found it surprising that next summer she went to dig up the claws because it did not seem like somthing she would do. I think she did it because she felt accomplished for killing the bear and wanted to see her success. It was like she was honoring herself for doing somthing good.

ANSWERS FOR QUESTIONS ON PAGE 88-94

1) I see two lovers saying goodbye for the last time.  The tone is kind of sad

2) Yes, as you read further the mood changes to relief.  It seems like the speaker wanted out of the relationship.

3) The speaker keeps repeating this because he is trying to get used to the new feelings and is not used to it, and is trying to convincee himself its over.

4) I would feel betrayed as if there was never love at all.

5) The last 6 lines makes it seem like the relationship was never all that bad but still had small troubles.

6) The "you" in the poem is the person who the poem was written too.

7)This information makes it seem like the guy was a little too obsessed with his former love and this poem was him trying to make it seem reel in his mind because nothing else was working.

1) The first paragraph reminds me of family vacations i used to go on where we would go camping.  i feel like the dog could be more of an indoor dog and the lady is more used to the wilderness so she is more of the protector.

2) paragraphs 3-6 make the mood more tense and frightened compared to the relaxed tone of paragraphs 1-2.

3) the statement makes the suspense build up and makes me wait fir something bad to happen.  that is natural reaction for a person to cover up when scared or worried.

4) paragraphs 12-16 show that bears are something that used to be very close to her but not as much at this point.

5)the construction of the porch and movement of the sofa out there is to get her closer to nature and further from the smell of the bear possibly.  the bear might be "him" because she has no man in her life.

6) all of the stories about bears bring about death which makes you think of this bear as a sign of death.

7) there is an X on summer days because the bears are not hibernating.

8) in paragraphs 32-41 it was frightening to have the bear going after her and reliving to see her kill the bear.

9) no because of her obsession with bears throughout the whole story

questions on page 100-101

1. I can definitely imagine myself in a similar position. I have a dog and i feel that she is just as stupid as the dog described in the story. She has no idea what she is barking at. If anything within 100 miles (a little exaggeration) makes a noise, she is running frantically around the house barking. I disagree with that statement. She may have looked after him in terms of food and water but in terms of fending off an attacker or animal, her dog would have most likely done anything he could to protect her.
2. Those four paragraphs set a much more negative tone on the story. It talked about a bear next to a "dead tree". This along with the title of the story hint that she is going to kill the bear. The third section creates a much more depressing tone when talking about how her stuffed bear was taken away from her. This seems to be related to the bear that comes back to her throughout the story.
3. I think that she does this because it makes her think about her old stuffed bear and how sad she got when it was taken away from her. So this was a symbol for the pain she felt at that time.
4. These paragraphs show how now she feels sad whenever she is around bears. The traumatizing memory of her mother destroying her bear makes her very sensitive to any type of bear that she sees. Perhaps she feels almost guilty for being around bears afterwards because she knows she shouldn't have one. So the reason she killed the bear was because she didn't think it was okay for a grownup to have.
5. She built the porch to feel protected when she's outside. The couch is just to sit on on the porch. She feels that this way, the bear can't get to her anymore and she won't have to think about it. She smells the bear but it becomes a bad smell because she knows that it is the bear and the fact that she has a negative opinion towards the bear make the bear smell bad to her. The fact that the bear is a him shows her insecurity towards males. Her father could have left her and her mother which is why only her mother is mentioned in the story. So she hates the bear because of her father.
6. In the sixth section, stories are told in which the bear is held as equal to human or as a good and positive thing. However in the seventh section, the bear is a vicious animal who destroys anyone or anything that gets in its way. This shows a shift in the girls opinion of the bear from honorable to destructive.
7. The summer was when she sat outside with her dog everyday on her hammock. When her dog passed, she must have gotten a negative of summer as well. So she marked summer days with X's to represent how she feels sad about summer time and not being with her dog.
8. In these paragraphs she turns into an emotionless monster. She kills the bear while he moans and slowly dies of pain. She stated how she didn't want him to die slowly yet she left him to die on his own until morning when he finally passed of blood loss. She then proceeded to bury him with the gun representing that she is trying to forget about it by ridding of everything that was touched or marked by the bear.
9. By the end of the story I wasn't very surprised to hear that. She had simply gone mad when she killed the bear so she is now going back to dig up its dead body to get it's claws... she is crazy!

Questions 88-94

1. I imagine two people that are in a relationship and that they cannot solve their problems so they are kissing for the last time and then after that, they will never see each other again. The tone is sad because these are two people that are in love and cannot work out their problems so they have to break up.
2. The tone has changed in lines 2-4. The speaker is saying that he is now glad to be free. Cleanly and freely suggest that the speaker is going to be able to start out on a new slate.
3. The speaker says many times that the lovers should break it off. This is because he is maybe having doubts about never seeing his lover again. When he keeps telling himself he should break it off it reassures him that he is doing the right thing. Also, he says not one jot of former love to remain. He does this once again to reassure himself that he is done with this relationship and that he is not making any mistakes by breaking it off.
4. I would probably not care because by the way the speaker is talking, he wants the relationship to be over. I would just accept the fact that its over and move on.
5. My view of the relationship changes because I no longer feel sorry for the two involved. The way this is written it is obvious there is a lot of tension and it is better off that they do not talk to one another. Representing love as a dying person let me see just how serious these two are about breaking off their relationship. To use death is serious and it proves they were not for each other.
6. The you would be the second half to this relationship. The you is a man because the speaker says "When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death."
7. After reading the real story, I still feel Anne and Michael should not have been together because of the angry words in the sonnet. However, I feel bad for Michael because he never found anyone else. It also says he was crazy for her. I do not understand why he claims to be glad to have been free of her. It;s possible he was not all there in the head and maybe it's a good thing Anne found someelse to spare her misery from Michael.

1. The first two paragraphs remind me of summer because the girl is on the hammock outside. It reminds me of myself because i love summer and I could spend hours just lying around on a hammock. It also mentions that she is more of the dog's protector than the other way around. That does not surprise me because my dog is the biggest wimp. He is actually scared of the cat and will not go outside if it is dark.
2. Paragraphs 3-6 alter the mood because the bear is mentioned. Bear are thought of as scary animals that attack. The mood changes from peaceful and quiet, to suspenseful.
3. My response to her hands lift to cover her breasts is maybe she was molested.
4. I can understand why she does not like bears because her mother burned her favorite bear and then said sorry for burning the animal in you. She might have gotten mad that her mother associated her with a bear and as a result takes her anger out on bears.
5. The bear's smell was rancid and the sex was male. At this point I feel that maybe she was molested at a young age and makes connections with the guy who molested her and the bear.
6. In the seventh section it shows how the bear is honored. However, it says if a woman encounters a bear in the woods, she must lift her skirt and then he will let her pass. It is obvious now that being raped and bears have a connection in this story.
7. The summer days are marked with an X because those were the days that she was raped.
8. It seems that she is getting revenge by killing the bear. She never got revenge on the person who molested her so by killing the bear it symbolizes her kiliing the molestor.
9. Yes, I dont know why she would bother digging him up to take the claw. It seems she would just leave him be and never return.

Questions 88-94 (95-101)

Questions from pg. 95

1. I imagine a husband and wife saying goodbye to each other. The tone of the speaker is relief, but sadness too.

2. The speaker is relieved to be free from the confines of the relationship. "Cleanly" and "free" suggest that the speaker wants this to happen.

3. The author repeat himself over and over to put the idea across that they do not belong together. It seems like the author wants to pretend that the whole thing never happened, almost as if it was a mistake.

4. I would be hurt. It seems to me that the author is telling me that it wasn't worth it to him.

5. It seems to me that the author is going to miss the relationship. And he/she hopes to get over it.

6. The "you" in this poem could be anyone. It could be he/she telling the partner about how they feel about the break-up. 

7. The poem now seems like it was a poem describing how he felt about Anne. It seems Michael was sad that it couldn't be him. As much as he wanted it, it wasn't meant to be as so he must move on and support Anne like a friend would.

Questions from pg. 100-101

1. I can imagine myself laying in a hammock in the woods with my dog just letting time go by. As for me being the protector of my dog, it doesn't bother me at all. Not every dog is going to be the fearless type.

2. Paragraphs 3-6 change the mood a little. She can hear the wolves howling which reminds her of when she went to the zoo and saw the wolves and the bear.

3. She is a little spooked and is clutching herself in an effort of self protection.

4. The girl had compassion towards bears. She kept her stuffed animal by her side at all times. After her mom had took it away and burned it she lost her sense of comfort.

5. The bear couldn't be the size of a typical bear if the bear had come as close to her as it did. The girl never moved the sofa so it must not have been very big.

6. Bears have been given a great respect and a lot of power in past cultures. Knowing about these could have greatly increased sense of danger. Knowing the respect that the bear has gotten in the past.

7. The summer days are marked with X's because during the winter bears are hibernating. So the X's mean that bears will be out.

8. The girl seemed like she has a great compassion for bears and then those paragraphs talking about how she shot the bear and then was planning on how to finish the bear off just put her past out of the picture. But she does try and cleanse herself of what she did in the last paragraph.

9. It doesn't really surprise me, but what it does show is her respect for the bear by maybe keeping its claws safe as a sign of power or strength.