Into the Wild #2

I like Into the Wild a lot, even though it's kind of sad. It's a little confusing how the author switches from different time periods throughout the book. For example, McCandless's death was mentioned in the beginning of the story and then as you read on, it talks about his journey to Alaska. It's okay though because it makes it more interesting that way. Well, anyway, I read three chapters today. Sometime after he went to Las Vegas, he went to Bullhead City, Arizona. He got a job at McDonald's and on a few pages, his manager and assistant manager talk about him: he was a little strange, but he was a reliable, good boy. In chapter 6, Chris meets Ronald Franz, an eighty year-old who really grew attached to him. The chapter starts off with a letter sent from him asking for a copy of the Outside magazine that talks about Chris's death. Then, the chapter talks about how they met and so on. I like how the author kind of fast-forwards and then starts with the beginning of the story. It catches your attention. One day at the bajada, Chris meets Franz, who offers a ride. He accepts and tells him to go past Oh-My-God Hot Springs(strange name, there). Franz gets really close to him, teaches him how to work with leather, and gives him a ride to San Diego, just because he wants to be with him. While they were driving, he asked Chris if he could adopt him as his grandson but, he kind of ignored it. This was really sad to me because Franz really liked him, enough to fill the gap of his dead son. Chris didn't want to have anything to do with relationships and human intimacy, though. Franz even took his advice to live a new life similar to Chris's new life, a free life on the road full of adventure.When he found out he died in Alaska, he was so crushed. :( Chris later returned to Westerberg in Carthage for work, to earn money for his "great Alaskan odyssey". It seems everyone was fascinated by him: Borah, Westerberg, Franz, Bob and Jan Burres, and even Mrs. Westerberg, who wasn't fond of any of her son's employees; he was special. On April 27, 1992, Chris sent letters to Westerberg and Jan and Bob Burres that this would be the last time they'd communicate. He now walks into the wild.

Into the Wild

Today, I began reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, and I really like it so far. It's a really interesting story about a 24 year old man who journeys into Alaska. I've never read a story similar to it and I think it's pretty unique. So, Chris McCandless, or "Alex" ventures into Alaska basically to invent a new life, a non-materialistic, free one. He escapes federal law and "things." He gives $25,000 to OXFAM, a charity, and burns the rest of it. The story starts off with Jim Gallien's discovery of "Alex" and picks him up in his Ford. Near the Stampede Trail, a bus has been left, in which 3 men get into. Later on, they find a note from Chris and his body, dead in the bus. This kinda surprised me, that the death came so early into the book. Well anyway, in Carthage, he met Wayne Westerberg at a bar, who took him to his friend's home, whose wife cooked him a nice meal.They became fond of each of other and he gave Chris a job, until he was arrested. So, he left and headed for a nomadic life. In  Detrital Wash, Chris crossed the "do not enter sign" or whatever it said with his yellow Datsun and it got stuck in a flash flood. He decided to just leave it there(the park rangers made good use of it). I got to the part-chapter 5- where Chris got a ride from some men to El Golfo de Santa Clara, where he dragged his found canoe to the ocean, followed by the beach. He's now in Las Vegas. I really like the author's style of writing because he doesn't try to write all "fancy" with a lot profound words. You feel like  he's talking with you or something. I planned to read a certain amount of pages today but it was so interesting that I kept going! Well, anyway I looked up some words. congenial-(adj.) agreeable, suitable, or pleasing contumacious-(adj.) stubbornly perverse or rebellious enigmatic-(adj.) perplexing, mysterious convivial-(adj.) friendly, agreeable. See you later, blog!

Awesome Ending

Today, I finished How To Read Literature Like a Professor! I liked chapter 25, "Don't Read With Your Eyes." I was kind of puzzled when I first read the title but, once you read on, it becomes clear what he means. He means that you shouldn't read with your eyes and your eyes only; you should look at things with different perspectives. In Homer's The Iliad, Achilles throws a fit because his slave has been taken from him and he slaughters every Trojan in his sight. We would see this as evil, terrible, unjust and just plain bad. But to an ancient Greek, this would appear different. You can't look at things in one way. In chapter 26, Foster talks about irony. Once again, he says' "Irony trumps everything." A nice example of irony: in Waiting For Godot, two men are stranded in a desolate country and they have the option to travel a road near them. But they don't. They choose not to, even though they can escape their desolation by going. Pretty ironic, I'd say. In the last chapter, ch. 27(my favorite), Foster gave us a test case, "The Garden Party", by Katherine Mansfield, a short story to analyze. I really liked it. The Sheridans are having a garden party that starts off with a marquee being placed in their beautiful garden full of karaka-trees, lavender, and fruit clusters. They're quite wealthy and have a cook, who prepared 15 kinds of sandwiches. yummy. Out of nowhere, Laura sees Sadie, cook, and the Godber's man staring at something in shock. At what? A dead man! Out of the blue. It was a man from the cottages below their home who had been killed. Laura told Jose that the party must be thrown off but she, along with her mother, thought that it was unnecessary. It seems like Laura is the only one with a heart; no one else cared. When the party ended, Laura had the idea of giving the leftovers and lilies to the family of the lost man. When she went on over with her gift basket, a woman answered the door and told her to walk in, ordered her to. She saw the "beautiful", in her words, dead man laying in bed. She let out a loud sob and when leaving, saw Laurie.
So, what does this story signify?
My answer: I think that Mansfield is trying to say that you shouldn't take things for granted. Laura comes from a wealthy family, as seen by the hundreds of fancy lilies, a personal cook, and their satin hats. When Laura goes over to the family of the dead man, she sees how other peoples' lives can be. They are poor and the cottages they live in are known for being filthy. There's a big difference between the quality of living of rich and poor. I believe that's why she cried in their home. She said to Laurie when she returned, "Isn't life-" and couldn't finish. I don't know what she wanted to say but you could tell that she was sad and didn't know how to express it.
Foster asked 3 people the same thing and I came pretty close to 2.(I'm kinda proud of myself :) ). The college major said that it signifies the indifference of the dominant class of people to the suffering of others and the other said pretty much the same. The 3rd compared it to birds and flight. Amazing analysis. I really liked the ending and it got me thinking like a professor. Bye!

There's Only One Story!

How To Read Literature Like a Professor

Seasons matter. We always associate seasons with decline. mid age, tiredness, yet harvest. That's why poets use seasons, either obviously or subtly, to bring ideas we're familiar with to our minds. For example, poet W.H. Auden uses the gloomy connotations  of winter to describe the death of dearly missed W.B Yeats. Or in Shakespeare's Sonnet 73, he talks about the season's coming of end, but the poem's really about his coming of old age. Pay attention to seasons! My favorite chapter is "One Story" because it's so fascinating. Foster says "There's only one story". I never realized it: there really is only one story, if you think about it a certain way. Yes, One. The number 1. That's it. When poets write something, they either talk about us-and-the-world or us-in-the-world. There's a connection between everything; no story is fully original. John Barth complains that all the stories have been used. Funny! But really, it's true in a way. When writers write, they are, whether they're aware or not, influenced by what they have read in their lifetimes. History of the things we read never leaves us. It's a part of us. This even falls into movies. Example: Movie westerns are inspired by other movie westerns that have been influenced by you guessed  it, other movie westerns. It rattles my mind because it's so true. Foster says himself in this chapter, "The movies you have seen were created by men and women who had seen others, and so on, until every movie connects with every other movie ever made." Couldn't have said it better myself. In the next chapter, he says that a physical deformity shouldn't be looked over because it means something. Just think of Harry Potter's scar and you'll believe it. Oh, and "It's never just heart disease." Nope. Think about what the heart symbolizes. Love, passion, stuff like that. So if a guy has heart disease, he might have had(metaphorically speaking) bad love, cruelty, or loneliness in his life. In "The Man of Adamant"(1837), the man, with a stone heart, thinks all people are sinners and avoids human contact by living in a limestone cave. Because of the calcium in the water, his heart literally turns to stone. Well, I found these chapters to be really relate-able to and interesting. Bye!!

Why, Hello There, Blog!

How to Read Literature Like a Professor

I'm sorry, I'm going to be frank and say it flatly. I don't like this book very much. Foster keeps using examples from books I've never even heard of and it's hard to relate to him because I'm not familiar with the stories. But, I still think he is pretty funny. Anyway, I read a lot today. Woohoo! So, in chapter 18, he got my attention by asking' "I'm walking down the road and suddenly I fall into a pond. What happens?" Then he said,"I mean, if you drown, you drown. If you get out, maybe all it means is you can swim." I thought that whole discussion was kinda funny. Well, he kept on going and started to talk about the significance of surviving a fall in water. Basically, when someone falls in water and makes it, it's baptism. That kind of shocked me for a moment because well, that's an analysis I wouldn't ever think about. It sounds weird, but why else would an author throw in a random drowning scene. In Ordinary People (1976), 2 brothers sail on Lake Michigan. They start to drown. One makes it and the other sadly, doesn't. Everyone thought it was weird that the "stronger", older brother didn't make it, while the younger did. Anyway, the younger one hung on the boat and survived. So what, you ask? Well, symbolically, he was reborn (that's the baptism part). He came back as a new person with a new position in the world, because of his missing brother. I thought that was a really good example to convince me. Another example: in The Horse Dealer's Daughter (1922), Mabel is rescued by a local doctor when she's drowning. When she's out of the water, she's covered in some fluid, naked and is then cleaned by the doctor. Does that ring a bell? It's like being born again. Baptism. Kinda weird stuff but I think Foster used good examples to prove his point. I think it's really cool how little things in stories can take on such huge meanings. It makes me want to analyze everything I read now. Just in case. Oh and also, I learned that geography can play a big part in setting mood and in character development. That is all. Bye!  
Vocab:    
Traverse-(v.) to make one's way through, across, or over Sordid-(adj.) not clean
Dalliance-(n.) activity engaged to amuse oneself Serendipity-(n.) luck, good fortune Umpteen-(adj.) innumerable, many

Almost There!

How to Read Literature Like a Professor 

"It's All Political." Foster discussed how lit can sometimes mention politics. He found connections to politics in the Christmas Carol(he uses A LOT of examples to help prove his point). He pointed out that the story attacks the way we look at our social responsibilities, by using grumpy old Scrooge. Weird, huh. I wouldn't have thought of it. In my opinion, Political lit is pretty interesting because it involves current world issues and stuff going on now. And in "Rip Van Winkle, there's a political meaning behind it, even though it just seems like a weird, pointless story. After he sleeps for 20 years (weird), he wakes up and arrives home to his dead wife and different hotel signs. It turns out though that the American Revolution has taken place when he was asleep. The hotel sign that once had a picture of King George now has a picture of pres. George Washington. Once again, I NEVER would've guessed. Yep, Foster is really analytical. Even though this book is kinda hard to understand, Foster is pretty funny. "I took just enough physics in high school to master one significant fact: human beings cannot fly." and "If it isn't human, it flies." and "But a Christ figure doesn't need to resemble Christ in every way,  otherwise......he'd be Christ." I like how he doesn't speak very formally, he says some jokes and little funny things, kind of like in a conversation. Here's another of his sayings: flight is freedom. Oh, and irony trumps everything. Now, chapter 16 was um, well.....awkward. Real awkward. Let's just say it's about a subject that's inappropriate. Yeah, we'll leave it at that. Anyway, I'll be back soon!  :)

Reading, Reading, Reading

 How to Read Literature Like a Professor

I thought it was really funny when the author said, "It's never just rain." It's much more special than just droplets of water falling from the sky; there's some meaning to it. Foster said that at times, Noah is what it signifies. Ya know, plenty of rain, the flood, the giant ark and of course, the peaceful rainbow at the end. There can be a biblical parallel when you find a rain scene. Rain sets a mood of scariness and mysteriousness. I mean, when haven't you wanted to start off a scary story with "It was a dark and stormy night"? That's the first line that pops up in my mind. Rain can  be cleansing, symbolically. In A Farewell of Arms(1929), the grieving protagonist walks out of the hospital into pouring rain. Rain's associated with life-giving in the the spring, not with death. That's strangely ironic. Well, as you can see, rain can be used for a lot of different reasons. He also talks about what's so special about fog, snow, and rainbows. Rainbows symbolize peace between heaven and earth. So, next time I read literature and spot a rainbow, I'll advance past the pot of gold and leprechauns and try to find the underlying message. I think Foster thinks of some pretty strange analyzes, but they're funny and really get you thinking about different ways to look at things. Not just simply reading, but reading in between the lines. If a symbol can be reduced to only one meaning, it's not symbolism, it's allegory. Symbols can have many meanings, however you interpret it.

Vocab!!!

1. Malicious- (adj.) having a desire to cause harm to someone
2. Verisimilitude- (n.) the quality of depicting realism
3. Bludgeoning- (n.) a hit with heavy impact
4. Indignant- (adj.) feeling or showing anger because of something unjust
5. Grandeur- (n.) magnificence