What's a Rememory?

      In Beloved, Toni Morrison uses her own word, "rememory", several times, as well as "disremember." I understand why "disremember" is used. The characters have undergone so many traumatic events in the past that they don't ever want to be reminded of again: Sethe's milk being stolen by schoolteacher's nephews, the killing of her own daughter, Beloved, Baby Suggs's death,  Paul D being shackled to ten other slaves and so much more. They seek to disremember and rather go on with the future, to leave the past behind. But "rememory" is harder to analyze. I think a rememory is a memory that is repeatedly remembered. When you think about the prefix "re-", you think of something happening over and over again. This implies that the memories of Sethe continue to be brought up several times. She "remorizes" traumatic things that occurred in her life because she can't get over her haunting past. She's gone through so many hardships in her life, such as trying to escape from Sweet Home as a slave, almost dying had Amy Denver never found her, not knowing what happened to her husband, Halle, and having the tough duty of killing her 2 year old to free her from a life of slavery. The "re" puts emphasis on the word memory, implying that it's a memory of an event or thing that is revisited due to its importance or awfulness.

I Love Beloved!

      Hello. I think Beloved by Toni Morrison is amazing on so many levels. It's so complex and I can tell, it's bursting with symbolism. I mean bursting. I read it the first time and didn't quite understand everything very well. But, I reviewed it very thoroughly and clarified whatever wasn't clear to me. I love the structure of the book: non -chronologically. It's written as someone remembers memories. When something is mentioned, something related from the past is brought up. It's confusing because everything is out of order but it's so much more interesting this way.
      I admire Morison's writing style. So complex, interesting, makes you want to read more. The book starts off with the present and as you read on, you realize why things are the way they are; you learn more about the pasts of characters, which explains their present situation. You learn  about Sethe's and Paul D's lives in strange order. The story starts off at 124 Bluestone Road, Cincinnati. You have no clue why, but you know. But then as you continue, it reveals its reason. Sethe, Paul D, Paul A, Sixo, Halle, and the Thirty Mile Woman all planned to escape from Sweet Home. Sethe runs away, pregnant, and a white woman, Amy Denver, finds her in bad condition. She helps her and spots a boat, where she gives birth.
      Symbolism. I know it's there. There are some strange moments that I don't get but noticed that I noticed them. For example, when Beloved looks out into darkness, says she sees her face and smiles. Or when she says she came from the darkness and lived on a bridge. Strange. Beloved is such a complex character. I was confused about her identity for awhile. I didn't realize that it was a manifestation of the 2 year old baby ghost Sethe killed; I thought she was a random woman that appeared on the doorstep of 124 or that she was a physical representation of Sethe's guilt or past. But she just turned out to be her baby's ghost. No big deal, right?! The characters don't notice all the weird things about her: her baby-like features, her raspy voice, or the fact that she knew about Sethe's diamond earrings. Only Paul D finds her suspicious. I like magical realism. It connects to moment in history (in this case, during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, when slaves were being emancipated but still treated poorly) but has some magical characteristics (a ghost, Beloved, coming to life). Reality and magical happenings co- exist. I can't wait to explore the symbolism in class because what's the point of reading a spectacular book if you don't fully get the idea, the big picture? I can see how Beloved represents the baby ghost; she acts like a baby, talks like one, doesn't know how to tie her shoes and she "walked out of water"(60). I think this is a symbol for the womb, she is reborn and walks out wet, how a newborn is. Morrison is a genius. Well, I shall return.

Ist Synthesis Essay

    I thought the first synthesis essay was a little hard. It was hard to start writing (but that paper you gave us on hooks helped) and hard to come up with what to say. It was about Christopher McCandless, if we thought he was ignorant or not. I disagreed with Shaun Callarman; I thought he was being too harsh and didn't think of the matter from Chris' point-of-view. Something that made it difficult was that we were given 8 sources. I didn't know where to start because there were too many resources to use.  I used three: Into the Wild, "Where I lived and What I Loved For" by Thoreau , "Nature" by Emerson and "Self-Reliance". I used the last two the most because they both had Transcendental ideas, which relates to Chris' way of thinking. It's weird because Emerson and Thoreau seem to think just like McCandless. Once you read these essays, you get a feel of why Chris did what he did. I thought the debate was fun! It started off a little quiet and dead because everyone's shy at first but then it got heated. Not to brag, but my team had some pretty awesome ideas :) Well anyway, I'm really glad we did that because it inspired me when writing my essay. It gave me a lot of great ideas.
      It took me a while to write this essay. I thought my intro was OK but it was hard to start the body. I didn't feel very comfortable with AXES. I used my Into the Wild book for some quotes (I flipped through every single page to read my annotations; they helped big time). I finally came up with three ideas and attempted to have AXES. I remembered to staple on the rubric and I turned it in early before the bell rang. While I was taking the Beloved quiz, I got it back. I got an 88 :) Not bad. Plus 10 extra credit points. Yay! I prefer Style-analysis over this. I'd rather analyze a document than write about my opinion on something. It's more fact-based and straight forward in my opinion. Well, I'll be reading Beloved over the break. I need to reread a lot of stuff because the questions were familiar to me and I remembered reading about them, but I just couldn't remember. Hopefully I'll do better on the second quiz after I study like crazy!     
Happy Thanksgiving Ms. Sobrero!

The Awakening

       Hello, blog. It's been a while. I really loved all the hidden symbolism behind The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. I never realized that the unnoticeable things, like the birds or the ocean, could represent such big, complex themes. I really enjoyed the things we've done with this book because if we didn't go over the symbols (water, birds, clothing, music, etc.), I would've missed out and never would've knew what the book was truly about. Chopin is a genius!
      I'm glad I was assigned  the "birds"group because everything pertaining to them made sense to me. I noticed that the first line of the book was about a green and yellow parrot, speaking "a little Spanish, and also a language which no one understood..." (1). Whenever I read small, meaningless-seeming details, I don't really analyze; I just keep reading. But that's not good! Anyway, I also loved what the clothing stood for: constriction in a society Edna feels doesn't suit her. Women of the era wore tight corsets (like cages, which connects to birds!), representing the constriction they feel in society. They were expected to be "mother-women" who obeyed their husbands and would give themselves up for their children; Edna wasn't like that, though. She wasn't a mother-woman and she didn't really love Mr. Pontellier. Therefore, she felt misplaced, like she didn't belong in the Creole South. At the end, Edna stood naked on the beach, before she "died" in the gulf---she felt free and stripped of society. She gazed at the Cavalry officer, reminded of the times in Kentucky when she was free, unmarried and could have a crush. So much symbolism!
      The day before the quiz, I was so nervous. I didn't know how detailed the questions were going to be or how easy they were to remember. I read it all, but it's easy to forget stuff. When we got the quiz, I panicked but  after a while, it started coming to me. I got 100! yay!!!!