Blog 16 – Semester Review

Looking back on this past semester, I feel like I’ve taken several steps to becoming a more knowledgeable writer. I think the three papers I wrote this semester were some of the most challenging I’ve written yet, but in the end I feel that because of this they also turned out to be some of my best writings. After discovering wordpress, I also decided to start doing casual writing on the side in a secondary blog, which has been a really great stress relief/creative release for me.

When it comes to our selected readings, I found both Ragtime and In the Lake of the Woods to be intriguing books that forced me to think critically about their contents including narrative elements, historical context, dialogue, and much more. My main question concerning the class deals with our two novels. I am curious as to how Ms. Weaver came about discovering that Ragtime and In the Lake of the Woods shared many similarities? If I would have read the two books separately and without searching for textual parallels, I would have thought the two novels to be extremely different from one another. However, through the analysis that was encouraged in our ENG 112 course, I came to learn that the two do share a lot.

The portion of this class that I had the most trouble with was the metaphor section. Since we covered this section quicker than the others, I felt like we didn’t have as much as an opportunity to dissect and explore metaphors more analytically. I knew how to identify a metaphor before this course, but I hadn’t had much experience breaking down metaphors and picking them apart piece by piece. It made selecting a topic a little tougher, but once I figured it out, it flowed more easily.

Overall, I really enjoyed ENG 112. I felt fairly challenged and I believe I have worked toward bettering my writing and my thought processes directed at analyzing other’s writings. It has certainly been an enriching course that caused me to develop a deeper interest in writing.

Blog 15 – Metaphor Paper

For my metaphor paper, I decided to examine the metaphors used in the musical “Into The Woods”. This show, partly known for its heavy metaphor usage, uses popular fairy tales to metaphorical portray the struggles and triumphs of real life.

I will be focusing on three metaphors in particular, all found in the lyrics of songs in the musical (with direct focus on the characters Little Red Riding Hood, Jack, and Cinderella). These metaphors aren’t one sentence statements, but instead whole concepts. For example, Jack’s encounter with giants (after climbing the beanstalk) leaves him feeling small and humble. This is used metaphorical to demonstrate that when people discover how much bigger the world is than they are, they may suddenly feel small in comparison.

Other metaphors used in the musical that I will be focusing on deal with the topics of not straying from the path and learning how to cope when someone leaves you “halfway through the woods”.

A possible thesis for my paper will include how the metaphors fail to show both negative and positive consequences of the characters’ actions, leaving audiences only one way to interpret the story (that is, if the audience doesn’t analyze this themselves).

Blog 14 – How To Build A Better Democrat

In “How to Build a Better Democrat” by Joe Klein, the issue of foreign policy and its complexity is brought to attention. Klein makes a point of saying that foreign policy is more than just the visible friend and foe and our relationships with other countries. It also includes issues that reach outside of governmental jurisdiction, such a terrorism (which is not affiliated under a specific government but rather a set of ideals) and the rapid spread of viral diseases such as SARS and AIDS (viral diseases do not heed to the threat of governmental force). 

In closing his segment, Klein writes, “In an age of viral power, Democrats might argue, the U.S. has to be more than a hammer looking for nails. We have to find a way to act as a vaccine.” This ‘hammer looking for nails’ metaphor views foreign policy in an interesting manner. The metaphor represents U.S.’s actions to fix the ‘loose nails’ in foreign relations by using our nation’s powers to  to ‘hammer’ them back in to their proper place.

However, Klein is arguing that we need to work and act as a vaccine to create a cure for the problems of the world that have inflicted the global population like a virus. Hammering a nail is often just a short, intrusive way to resolve an issue. There is the possibility that the nail will was again become loose, creating an obtrusion that could once again snag foreign policy. A vaccination, on the other hand, serves as a more preventative action that creates long standing results and eliminates the further spread of problems.

Blog 13 – Peer Review

I felt that this peer review worked more efficiently than the last peer review. Having hard paper copies made the editing/note taking process a lot easier. I also felt like I, along with my peers, was much better at finding points of constructive criticisms to help better my own paper and my peers papers.

Before turning in my final draft, I plan on adding a paragraph to contradict my argument. This would be for the purpose of proving my that argument could be approached and argued differently. I also have some sentences that need some restructuring for clarity, but other than that, much of the fundamentals of my paper will remain the same. As a side note, I was really impressed with the other papers I read during peer review. These papers opened up observations and arguments that I had failed to consider before, which I found intriguing. Though getting this paper started was a little more challenging than the last, I feel more satisfied with my final product this time around.

Blog 12 – Thoughts of “In the Lake of the Woods”

I found this text, as a whole, to be a very exciting and intriguing piece. Tim O’Brien did an excellent job keeping me as a reading constantly revising my own theories of Kathy’s disappearance as well as making me think about philosophical subjects such as “What is happiness?” Though this book tackles the subjects of Vietnam and life as a politician, I think O’Brien’s words can easily translate to most any topic. Truth, happiness, and the desire to feel love and acceptance are relevant in everyones life and are things that people are forever trying to understand.

The ending of O’Brien’s novel was slightly chilling. The fact that Kathy is never found nor John’s whereabouts known creates a very mysterious and inconclusive ending. Though part of me wishes O’Brien would have provided an ending with answers, another part of me appreciates his leaving it to be interpreted by the reader. Truly I feel John completely lost his mind at the end, especially when he began his radio broadcasts.

There certainly are a lot of lingering questions left behind from this novel. First and foremost, there is the question of what happened to both Kathy and John. But beyond that, I have a questions on Claude’s involvement. There were times where it seemed like Clause knew more than he was letting on, possibly things that John may have told him that we as the readers were never informed of. The conversation the two had on page 281-282 was alarming to me. On page 282, John says that he didn’t hurt her (Kathy) in which Claude replies, “Now there’s a fact”. John continues to deny hurting Kathy and Claude laughs and says, “Better late than never.”  What does Clause mean by this?

I’m also curious of some of O’Brien’s choices. I understand why O’Brien chose to sometimes call John “John” and why other times he used “Sorcerer”. It had to deal with the identity in which John Wade saw himself, either his civilized self or his war self. But why did O’Brien decided to sometimes call John solely by his last name, “Wade”? On pg. 230, O’Brien first refers to his main character as “John” but later on in the page as “Wade”. I’m trying to see the motivation and/or the significance behind this choice, but I haven’t been able to come up with any.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed reading this book. O’Brien’s style was completely unique to any other style I have read before, which kept the novel interesting. The fact that the story is told through a narrator investing the case only makes it even more interesting!