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Writing 5

The paper has been totally edited and fixed.  It was rough especially because i only had one check mark (that still needed fixing).  I feel moderately confident in my paper just because i really did fix everything.  The last abstract i fixed was the hardest because I kept celebrating that i was actually A. gonna finish my paper and B. gonna fix every part of my paper.  My favorite part of the paper had to be finishing it.  Overall I enjoyed my book more than i thought i would.

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writing 4

I feel a little more confident in the project now just because i turned everything in and my humble instructor corrected it.  However there is a lot of correcting to do on everything so I'm still pretty worried.  My main focus for corrections is my general intro because that counts as two grades and so if thats good then ill do much better.  Im already feeling a little relief that the paper is due in only three days so i won't have it hanging over my head anymore.  My dream would be to have the easter bunny bring me checks for my annotations this sunday.

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Writing 3

So I'm on my intro to annotations and now I'm severely struggling because i only have one check on my annotations and abstracts and i feel as if i need to correct those before i do my intro to annotations.  I have made it to the struggle bus because i am very unsure of myself at this point and worried that i may be doing something wrong.  Stress level 8 of ten.  Im hoping to finish my intro to annotations tonight and finish or at least start my general intro.

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Writing 2

The annotations were more difficult than the abstracts.  I am unclear on the difference between explaining what something means rather than how it works.  That is most of what i need to correct in my annotations.  I am worried that I am behind most of the class especially because i only have one check total so far.  I am hoping to rewrite and turn back in some of my abstracts and annotations so i can get a few more checks.  My freak out level is probably 7 out of 10.

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The Writing 1

Writing the abstracts hasn't been that difficult because they are more of a summary about what the critic said.  The most difficult part about doing the abstracts is finding a good criticism that you can understand and then reading it.  I actually really like reading some parts of the abstracts because they bring up things that I didn't think of while reading.  An example of this is that one of my criticisms brought up the fact that the giving of the scholarship to the narrator was really a philanthropic act by the white people.  I think I need to focus more on what the critic says the writing does.  Overall i feel sort of confident in my abstracts and very confident that my criticisms will help me.

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me mike and the librarian chillin

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Reading the work 5

Chapters 28 throughout the epilogue were defiantly the most enjoyable to read and i especially liked the part where the invisible man was in the street riots just because it was action packed.  I thought that the invisible mans night with Sibyl was very very odd because the narrator knew he couldn't get any valuable knowledge about the brotherhood from her, yet still invited her over.  I thought it was very fitting that the last chapter ended with the invisible man being invisible to police because he was in a man hole with coal that was the same color as his skin, so he really was invisible.  I think the ending was a little vague because it says nothing about what happened to the brotherhood and brother Jack and the narrator also doesn't talk about what became of the Harlem riots.  I thought it was interesting how during the riots the narrator seemed to have some very funny comments yet the first half of the book there was no humor.   The epilogue did a good job of explaining some of the invisible mans ideas about being invisible.  Overall i appreciated this book, although i admit the first four hundred pages were a bit of a drag because i had no idea how the invisible man was invisible.  I am also disappointed that the narrator never said his name because it made him very difficult to address on these blogs.  Beneath is a picture of the invisible mans underground home.

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Reading the Work 4

Chapters 18 through 23 took an interesting turn because the narrator was accused by one of the members of the brotherhood for being selfish and trying to distinguish himself as the leader of the brotherhood.  It seemed really unfair to me that the one of the members of the brotherhood could just accuse someone of a wrongdoing without hard evidence.  Despite the lack of evidence, the main character is sent on a new assignment for the brotherhood that focuses on women's right.  I am trying to figure out why Ellison included the part where the invisible man has an affair with a married woman after one of the shows because it was off character for the invisible man.  When the main character is found innocent of selfishness he returns to his normal position in the brotherhood to find that some of his best friends in the brotherhood have left like Todd Clifton and he can't find out why when he tries to contact the board.  I find everything about the brotherhood to be fishy right now because they used to love the invisible man but now they tell him nothing about whats happening and don't really applaud him for his speaking ability.  Later the invisible man sees Clifton on the street, watches him get arrested, and then watches him get shot by the police for acting up.  I think this changed the invisible man because Clifton was one of his best friends in the brotherhood and with him gone, the invisible man started questioning the integrity of the brotherhood.  After giving a improvised public speech at Cliftons funeral, the brotherhood committee reprimands him as shown in the clip below. I think the main character will leave the brotherhood soon because of their poor treatment of him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1oOTX5c30w

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Reading the Work 2

Chapters 7 through 11 show the first experience that the main character has with people trying to "keep him running" like his grandfather told him at the beginning of the novel.  As it turns out, the job letters of recommendation were really not recommendations but pleas to keep the main character away from the school and give him a seamless transition to a working life.  A white man helps the main character find a job working for a paint factory that specializes in making optic white paint, the whitest paint ever.  I find this ironic because none of the people there  are pure and the company is corrupt.  I thought this part of the work was a tad bit of a run on with all the pages just about the factory and the work that the main character did.  I think that the main character is way too trustworthy of people at this point in the story. He thinks everyone is good when really its a dog eat dog world in the north. Its not until the last part of chapter eleven that the story gets more interesting because a tank at the factory explodes and the main character ends up in the hospital.  I hope the main character can recover and succeed in finding a job because it seems like right now nothing is going his way in life.  Below is a picture commemorating Ralph Ellisons book in a New York City park.

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reading the work 1

The epilogue through page 150 has intrigued me mainly because of the composure that the main character has held throughout the beginning of the novel.  Despite the problems with trying to keep Mr. Norton safe, and getting kicked out of his dream college, the main character has stayed mentally composed and hasn't had any mental breakdowns.  So far it seems like the main character is trying to find his identity, which explains why he has yet to say his name in the story.  One thing I don't understand yet is why the college director would give the main character letters of recommendation for a job.  It doesn't make sense to give out job applications because the main character is being kicked out because of his actions detrimental to the health of one of the white college founders.  So far I've underlined a lot of things relating to race because so far i think one of the main ideas of the book is the main character fitting into a white society.

An interesting adaptation of the first few chapters can be found at this link

http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=__t1e-MPW5A&u=/watch?v=KCjegVS_Cmg&feature=share

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Picking the Work

I decided to read Invisible Man by Ralph Elllison mainly because it was the first book that my humble instructor really approved me to read. I had some other choices but invisible man kind of intrigued me despite the fact that it has more pages than i would have liked.  The book caught my interest because it is about a man who is figuratively invisible to others which i thought related to my life more than the other books i found dealing with romanticism.  Unfortunately i don't know of any peers who have read this book, yet it has some pretty prestigious awards.  It is also written in normal english which is plus because sometimes I read things that are written in some pretty odd language.  I hope to enjoy the book and anxiously look forward to reading all 600 pages.

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originality

I believe that the internet is for the most part original because before the internet there was no network that people could access from anywhere.  There was never anything comparable to the internet that people could have stole ideas from until the actual internet.

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Black Men and Mary Shelley

Mary Shelleys quote "i beheld the wretch-the miserable monster i had created" connects to   Brent Staples essay because the essay describes how people have stereotypical ideas about black people in public places.  Staples had to change his behavior because of his race such as walking farther away from people and whistling to show he wasn't a threat.  The people in society who have stereotypes about black people are the ones who have created this monster that Staples cannot escape from.  At the beginning of Staples essay when he says the girl ran from me, he is showing how white people perceive him as a monster even though he isn't a threat to them.  When the girl runs, Staples realizes people  are really afraid of him.

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Elementary Snowletter

In second grade I had a friend named Tighe who lived down the street.  We were tight.  One day at school we had snack time and there were extra treats.  Tighe asked me to have the extras but I refused because that wouldn't be fair to everyone else.  After this we went out to recess.  Tighe was clearly still mad at me for the incident at snack time because he saw me dropping snow and said he would tell on me for throwing snow.  I was simply dropping snow then kicking it because I had nothing else to do.  When Tighe told me he was going to tell on me, I was paralyzed because i knew that meant I would get a snow letter.  These were dreaded letters that were sent straight to parents.  I followed Tighe around the playground trying to persuade him not to tell on me.  This was to no avail.  Halfway through recess he told mrs. Foster that I had been throwing snow.  Mrs. Foster was one of the only teachers I never had so she had no idea that I would never break a rule.  Mrs. Foster immediately sent me to the office to get a snow letter.  I walked into the school and cried considerably at the thought of what my parents would say.  When I made it to the office, the secretary asked me where snow belongs and I began to sob while muttering "on the ground."  When I got home I told my parents what had happened and to my surprise they were ok with what I had done.  This incident was one of the first times I ever got in trouble and my parents saying that everything was ok probably made me think that being in trouble was ok.

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The speaker of this cartoon is pointing out that the government is not banning guns, it is trying to eliminate assault rifles.  The speaker is showing how people are overreacting.  The audience of this picture is people who want assault rifles in their everyday lives.  The people in this picture feel that they are entitled to any weapon.  At this day in age, that is simply not possible because of recent shootings.

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The speaker of this post is a person against assault weapons. The audience is NRA members and people who think they need assault rifles.  The speaker is being sarcastic and showing that there is no reason to have an assault rifle.  When hunting you would have to shoot seven deer that quickly.  This picture is an effective argument against assault weapons.

This is why we need assault rifles

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The speaker of this cartoon is an artist.  The audience of this cartoon is the american public that is concerned with guns and depicts how everyone nowadays is scared of guns because of recent gun shootings.  I interpret this image to be a calling for stricter gun laws.  Four people in this image are scared of the man with the gun while the old lady in the back is being sarcastic.  She thinks now she's safe because there is a man with a gun.