The Little Mermaid

The setting of the story is the kingdom of the mer-people deep under the sea and the palace where the Prince lives which is apparently right next to the ocean.

The point of view is third person.

I chose this story because I thought it would be easy to follow and pick up on symbols and it would have a happy ending.  I was wrong.  Disney lied to me when I watched The Little Mermaid as a child.  Why must every story have a tragic ending?

Discussion on The Birthmark and Bartleby

I liked the way we broke up into groups and presented what we came up with to the class.  It was definitely easier to take notes and follow along with the discussion.  As far as the content goes, I was able to follow along and pick up on more symbols and themes.  I don't really like a lot of the stories we've read because they're all depressing.  They are  still good stories and they're a lot better than other things I've had to read but I like a happy ending every now and then.

Discussion on Racism

The talk was different form any that I've had in college so far.  It was slightly uncomfortable because we don't have to deal with race issues everyday.  Most of us have a white majority around us in our daily lives so we never notice anything that is related to race.  I think that because most of us are so sheltered, we are ignorant of any racial things that we might say or do.  I openly admit that I laugh at racist jokes of all kinds and I used to really follow stereotypes.  I've made an effort to not believe in stereotypes anymore.  Since I have never gone through any sort of struggle because of my race, I tend to not have an opinion on racial issues and I just stay quiet.

Fake Twitter

This article isn't all that surprising.  When people get extremely bored they are are likely to do something stupid that can hurt someone else's reputation.  I have never been bored enough to set up a fake twitter for someone I dont like because my life is interesting enough that the thought has never crossed my mind.

Final Thoughts on the paper

Writing about We was a little bit harder than I thought it was going to be.  I really appreciated the in class discussions and the individual conference.  Both of those helped me get my thought somewhat organized.  There was nothing that didn't really work.  Everything we did in class was ment to help and everything did help a little bit.  For me, listening to the discussions and the conference just happend to help the most.

The Metamorphosis

While reading the story, I noticed that people treat Gregor negatively because he looks different.  He hasn't really done anything to offend anyone.  Other than the fact that he is a bug, he is the same person he was before the change.  The people in his life, with the exception of his sister, treat him terribly.  Nobody sees whats on the inside.  This makes me think that the story could be about racism or prejudice.  If so, than Kafka has done a pretty good job at representing an anti racism story.

Works Cited

Dennis, Bretton J., and Rafeeq O. McGiveron. "Zamyatin's WE." Explicator 58.4 (2000): 211-213. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.

Barratt, Andrew. “The X-Factor in Zamyatin’s “We.” Modern Language Review 80.3 (1985): 659-672. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.

Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We, 1884-1937. New York: Modern Library, 2006. Print.