April 30, 2013

Sherman Alexie took me by surprise in this literature class because I wasn't expecting Native American writings to come so late in American literature. I thought I was done with them after 221, but I was wrong. Alexie uses both old and new forms of Native American literature to create a nice mix of both the traditional – "wild horses" and "crows" – and more modern settings and scenarios – "pawn shops" and "football fields." Since it took me by surprise, Alexie's poems actually interested me more than the normal, ordinary Native American literature would. The combination of the different styles held my attention, and created imagery that gave me a new respect for the modern-day Native American. Also, seeing Alexie on the Colbert Report piqued my curiosity. His views on digital books and Native American culture were fresh and respectable, and it's the differing views like his that I appreciate to learn about to investigate the opinion further on my own.

In the same way, Jhumpa Lahiri's short story, "Sexy," was not what I was expecting to read at the end of the semester. Not only is she Indian American, but the title "Sexy" certainly got me interested (and not just because I'm a guy). It's not every day you read something as risque as Miranda and Dev's affair in literature class. Aside from it just being different and standing out with its title, "Sexy" was eye-opening with its story of an affair, and how it can affect both the married and the single that are involved. Dev's marriage could have potentially been ruined had his wife found out about the affair, and Miranda's self-respect and emotions were drastically played with, and became very unstable because of the player that Dev was. For a long time, I've never really taken the single person into account when it comes to the affairs that I see in both real life and on television. I figured, since they have nothing to lose, then they are free to do as they please (even though causing a married person to cheat is extremely stupid and immoral, in my opinion). But "Sexy" has surprisingly made me think a lot more about the single person, as he or she also develops feelings for the other person that's in the relationship, and is more or less just stuck, because the other person is in a committed relationship, and isn't able to just drop who they're with for the person they're having an affair with (although a person that cheats shouldn't be in a relationship with anyone, period).

I've thoroughly enjoyed this class, and it's taught me a lot about the post-Civil War American literature. It's changed my opinion about a lot of things, and made me think more critically about certain topics.

April 18, 2013

John Updike's "Separating" doesn't mean much to me, since my parents aren't divorced, even though they almost did about 7 years ago. At that age, not knowing there wasn't any tension between my parents, all I remember is that it was such a shock to me, and I was confused, to say the least. I can somewhat empathize with Richard's children, and understand where each of them are coming from in their confused states.
Now, I can actually relate to Phillip Roth's "Defender of the Faith," and I think, to a certain extent, everybody can. I've known lots of people in my short lifetime that have used Christianity to do something so ridiculous, such as skip class or wear something out of dress code at school. I believe that anyone that exploits their religion for selfish purposes has achieved an all-time low. That's something so wretched and disgusting to me, and to be frank, I'd like to slap some of those people a few good times.
I thoroughly enjoyed Billy Collins' poems "Forgetfulness," "I Chop Some Parsley While Listening to Art Blakey's Version of 'Three Blind Mice'," and "The Night House," not only because they were easy to read, but they each evoked a very specific mental imaged and caused me to genuinely think about the aspects of life – memory, purpose, and the mind. I actually listened to Art Blakey's "Three Blind Mice" as I read Collins' poem. The entire song is instrumental, so Collins obviously knows the poem by heart as he writes about it, questioning the mice's purpose and motives. I personally love to see people think on a deeper, more critical level, such as this, even if it doesn't relate to anything going on in their life. Thinking is always good, and all three of these poems from Collins think deeply about various topics.
Just like with Collins', I was also fond of Li-Young Lee's poems, "Persimmons," "Eating Alone," "Eating Together," and "This Room and Everything it It." "Persimmons" gives great imagery, along with feelings of calmness and nostalgia. And as cliché as it sounds, his poems involving his father made me appreciate mine more. As my family and I are growing older day after day, the reality of death is becoming more evident to me.