the reading for 11/12...i think.

sorry it took me so long to post this - i forgot my password and spent the better half of the last few hours looking for it.

the first piece, the one about the lithuanians, was a bit dense. Not as in stupid, but as in long/intense. To get the full effect, i'm probably gonna have to read it again - i'm pretty sure i didn't take everything in. It was definately emotional, and i like the last image a lot.

the second piece i thought was fantastic, but in a sad way. I like the way she described the path of getting an abortion. She really described the entire experience fantastically, and she used the last indented paragraph with only one sentence tactic that I use often to create a strong effect.

i would write a lot more normally, but i'm super tired right now, because instead of writing i was figuring out my password.

Ashes of August

ashes of august is a great story, and i really enjoyed the way she wrote it. The things that resonated with me most were the opening scene and the part where the man shot himself because of the pressure.

The ending was also incredibly suspensful, and the way she wrote it was jsut fantatsic.

I would write more, but i'm incredibly tired!

reading for october 13th

Both of the stories we had to read were good (Fittings and My Father Always Says), and I was touched by both of them. I like My Father Always Says because the author learns about her heritage and sees a change in her father after visiting their homeland, and I thought that his new favorite saying was the best of all.

Fittings was my favorite, just because I loved the character that was the old woman. I thought she was charming, and Alzhiemers always strikes a sad key with me, because i've had two relatives I know that have Alzheimers. I thought the story was charming in general, and I liked it a lot.

They were both very good, and I enjoyed reading them.

now, off to bed!

Hostess Cake...just with meat and egg

This story, along with the Alaska story, both hit me fairly hard. However, this one made more of an impact with me. In Alaska, her heritage isn't set in stone. She basically has no power in her heritage, and is made fun of for basically being a mutt. Both spanish and indian, she is ridiculed by racist fools. She is confused by their remarks, and she doesn't know what to make of getting a shotgun placed in her face. the difference between the stories is their dedication to their heritage.

In Dumpling, Balcita has a rich history that she first ignores. She is taught about her heritage through cooking, but at the moment, suntanning and hanging out with her friends is better than just lame old cooking. However, she takes more interest as it goes along, and she starts to examine her mother more of as an angel than anything (although she calls her a witch instead. which made me laugh), and the art of cooking becomes just that: a skill she wants. After perfecting her dumpling making skill, she takes it to school, and is insulted because of it.

this is the part of the story that struck me - she turns her back on her culture because of her embarassment, something that just shows how children struggle with fitting in.

I love her last lines "They are green and sparkling. I think maybe I can stay out here and look at them forever, but then I remember that they'll be gone in a week." Which I take as how she dealt with the situation. It may seem as if the embarassment may last forever, but it will be gone in a week. I really liked this story. It was charming and sad. Truly a good piece.

blah

i feel so sick

i just got caught in the rain...

and now i feel sick


blah.

Independence Day

this piece was very good. Racism is something lots of people deal with day to day and it isn't any different in alaska. I like the ending a lot (i never wore that bandana or the jean jacket again) and I like when she tells the part about the owner ofthe bar getting shot, and how she was glad taht he was dead. It showed her humanity. It was a very good piece, and the entire manner of the piece shifted as the paper did, because from the beginning, she was a wistful 12 year old, who couldn't care less about important things, who live in a different world, who was forced into the world of maturity by a racist bar owner with a gun. its unfortunate, but worse has happened.

i really liked this story, and it was a good vignette.

Comments on the Reading for sep 23.

I think the inner story to Teacher Training is her own history of needing a teachers attention (her struggle to be the best, and how she was so dissapointed up until that day where the teacher commended her), and how she can convey her own inner story to her students now, where she has realized she must attend to all of the students needs as indivuduals, and that can be difficult at times. Her inner story is continuing through the beginning story when she was a little girl, up into her adult life as a teacher, and her goal of become a better teacher and person. She uses her own experience to impact her teaching style, and goes to talk about keeping the interests of all the individuals at heart in order to be a great teacher.

I really liked both pieces - I liked teacher training because I could really feel her humiliation when she talked about not spelling the words correct, and also when she got upset about her teacher not noticing about her work, and also her anticipation about her new teacher in the fifth grade.

In Finding The Inner Stor In Memoirs and Personal Essays by Michael Steinberg, I liked the way he talked about his story, and how he gave tips for memoirs (especially in the end where he writes about what people leave out.) which I will most definately be using in future writing!

Both were great, and I really enjoyed both pieces.



sleepy time...