So I don't know how to make my photos stay in one blog- I'm computer challenged, I think. But these two photos clearly indicate that yes, us girls (Stephanie, Amy, Kristi, Carla, and Ashley) we AT Avalanche last night, submerging ourselves into delicious gluttonous ice cream bliss. It was really funny, because like Amy said they bellowed "AVALANCHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" as they sent the dessert out from the kitchen. We were laughing so loud that one of my other friends heard me from the other side of the room, which was embarrassing cuz we were about to pig out on ice cream.
Anyways, good times, I love my girls, and I am excited to take classes with them again next quarter!!!
Thanks for making extra credit opportunities so much fun!!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Ode to 373
Ahh, what you've all been waiting for!!!
Again, I apologize for the roughness and for the fact that I didn't include everyone, I would have made it better had I thought to do it a long time ago. It's not usually my style to make people feel left out, so I am so sorry if you were waiting for your spotlight stanza and never got your chance to shine. . .
Hearing Kelly's footsteps approach
All notes and readings prepared
Knowing Maurice had an opinion
Every day Julie a little scared.
Not reading the Diamond Age, slacking on blogs
Thesises not being narrow
Julie sighing, Brienne crying
Time we had none left to borrow.
Kristi (and others) too shy to talk in class
While Heather just talked like a wacko
Derek and Tanner threw smart things in here and there
And Stephanie took bites of an apple.
How could Julie have known what was in store
Making her long journey to TC every day
Stressing and coping, praying and hoping
Her class, for once, would have something intelligent to say.
If I had had more hours I would have included
All you other wonderful people in class
But I don't have the time to make it all ryhme
And all I want to do is pass.
Love to you all!!!!
Heather
Again, I apologize for the roughness and for the fact that I didn't include everyone, I would have made it better had I thought to do it a long time ago. It's not usually my style to make people feel left out, so I am so sorry if you were waiting for your spotlight stanza and never got your chance to shine. . .
Hearing Kelly's footsteps approach
All notes and readings prepared
Knowing Maurice had an opinion
Every day Julie a little scared.
Not reading the Diamond Age, slacking on blogs
Thesises not being narrow
Julie sighing, Brienne crying
Time we had none left to borrow.
Kristi (and others) too shy to talk in class
While Heather just talked like a wacko
Derek and Tanner threw smart things in here and there
And Stephanie took bites of an apple.
How could Julie have known what was in store
Making her long journey to TC every day
Stressing and coping, praying and hoping
Her class, for once, would have something intelligent to say.
If I had had more hours I would have included
All you other wonderful people in class
But I don't have the time to make it all ryhme
And all I want to do is pass.
Love to you all!!!!
Heather
An Absolutley Amazing Abstract, from yours truly.
Hello my lovelies!!!
I am SO terribly sad that today was the last day we will EVER be in class together again. . . The magic we created within the walls of. . . what was the classroom number again??
But Oh, the magic. That's what we will all remember and take with us- the JOYS of Global Literature and the English Language! We shall be eternally grateful for the knowledge and sanctity of what was said in room. . . . that room. The talk of Capitalism, Colonialism, crazy drugged out people, sex diaries, and Globalism. Could we really have sucked out any more sweet nectar from the core of English 373?
Ok, so my abstract is pretty much what I spoke about in class, I hope I'm doing it right. I can correct it immediately on your word, Julie, so just let me know. :)
Concerning the texts The Mimic Men and Wide Sargasso Sea, my psychoanalytic argument (thanks to Julie, Tanner, and Amy for reminding me of an obvious thing I should have noticed had I REALLY been paying attention to the week on literary criticisms in 302, haha :)) is:
"The alienation that Antoinette and Ralph both experience in their childhood contributes to their continual search for identity for the remainder of their adult lives."
Ralph definitely has some rough childhood experiences that lead him to become reclusive starting in his early years. Cecil bullies him, and on top of that inferiority, he suffers from extreme embarrassment in front of his class. His schoolmates laugh at him when he doesn't think of "wife" when participating in a word association exercise, and this happens again with the letter he had to read aloud to the class concerning his future employment. It is because of this feeling of being on the outside that Ralph begins to live it like it was normal. He accommodates to what his classmates assume, and therefore becomes a "Mimic Man." He changes his name at school, and later on his ability to have healthy relationships with women is effected. He can't make his marriage work, and he has a prostitution problem. He learns to separate his emotions from who he really is. Brian Allen for the journal of Childhood Maltreatment states that "psychological rejection and degradation may also contribute to [. . .] problematic and unstable interpersonal relations" (311). Ralph is a basket case when it comes to thinking of intimacy, as he even expresses, "Intimacy: the word holds the horror" (30). He definitely has issues in dealing with relationships and his feelings that his identity have been lost.
In Antoinette's case, she does in fact receive a lot of abuse at the hands of the children who live on the island, and feels like an outsider. However, it is most evident that her primary source of rejection and alienation was from her mother, and that is what, in the end, seals her fate. So many times she was on the short end of the stick when it came to parenting- not only did her mother not care about her (which is bad enough in itself), but her mother favored her brother. Granted, he had health problems, but Antoinette was still aware enough as a kid to see that she wasn't wanted. She even says to Rochester later, "Between you I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why I was ever born at all" (61). Wow.Antoinette is pretty stuck in a big, muddy pit if she knows where she was born and who her family is and yet still searches to find her identity. In a cool article I found, Laura Choate and Annemieke Hensen stated "psychological maltreatment has been linked to a range of long term mental health difficulties. For example, a history of psychological maltreatment has been associated with general psychological distress, diminished self esteem, interpersonal shame, emotional inhibition (including suppressed/withheld thoughts, avoidant coping styles and ambivalence regarding emotional expression)" (119). Antoinette has a lot of all that going on, and the fact that her own mother had mental health problems does not give us a lot of hope for her.
I know this is longer than a normal abstract, but I'd rather bore you to death with too much rather than leave you confused with too little.
I am SO terribly sad that today was the last day we will EVER be in class together again. . . The magic we created within the walls of. . . what was the classroom number again??
But Oh, the magic. That's what we will all remember and take with us- the JOYS of Global Literature and the English Language! We shall be eternally grateful for the knowledge and sanctity of what was said in room. . . . that room. The talk of Capitalism, Colonialism, crazy drugged out people, sex diaries, and Globalism. Could we really have sucked out any more sweet nectar from the core of English 373?
Ok, so my abstract is pretty much what I spoke about in class, I hope I'm doing it right. I can correct it immediately on your word, Julie, so just let me know. :)
Concerning the texts The Mimic Men and Wide Sargasso Sea, my psychoanalytic argument (thanks to Julie, Tanner, and Amy for reminding me of an obvious thing I should have noticed had I REALLY been paying attention to the week on literary criticisms in 302, haha :)) is:
"The alienation that Antoinette and Ralph both experience in their childhood contributes to their continual search for identity for the remainder of their adult lives."
Ralph definitely has some rough childhood experiences that lead him to become reclusive starting in his early years. Cecil bullies him, and on top of that inferiority, he suffers from extreme embarrassment in front of his class. His schoolmates laugh at him when he doesn't think of "wife" when participating in a word association exercise, and this happens again with the letter he had to read aloud to the class concerning his future employment. It is because of this feeling of being on the outside that Ralph begins to live it like it was normal. He accommodates to what his classmates assume, and therefore becomes a "Mimic Man." He changes his name at school, and later on his ability to have healthy relationships with women is effected. He can't make his marriage work, and he has a prostitution problem. He learns to separate his emotions from who he really is. Brian Allen for the journal of Childhood Maltreatment states that "psychological rejection and degradation may also contribute to [. . .] problematic and unstable interpersonal relations" (311). Ralph is a basket case when it comes to thinking of intimacy, as he even expresses, "Intimacy: the word holds the horror" (30). He definitely has issues in dealing with relationships and his feelings that his identity have been lost.
In Antoinette's case, she does in fact receive a lot of abuse at the hands of the children who live on the island, and feels like an outsider. However, it is most evident that her primary source of rejection and alienation was from her mother, and that is what, in the end, seals her fate. So many times she was on the short end of the stick when it came to parenting- not only did her mother not care about her (which is bad enough in itself), but her mother favored her brother. Granted, he had health problems, but Antoinette was still aware enough as a kid to see that she wasn't wanted. She even says to Rochester later, "Between you I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why I was ever born at all" (61). Wow.Antoinette is pretty stuck in a big, muddy pit if she knows where she was born and who her family is and yet still searches to find her identity. In a cool article I found, Laura Choate and Annemieke Hensen stated "psychological maltreatment has been linked to a range of long term mental health difficulties. For example, a history of psychological maltreatment has been associated with general psychological distress, diminished self esteem, interpersonal shame, emotional inhibition (including suppressed/withheld thoughts, avoidant coping styles and ambivalence regarding emotional expression)" (119). Antoinette has a lot of all that going on, and the fact that her own mother had mental health problems does not give us a lot of hope for her.
I know this is longer than a normal abstract, but I'd rather bore you to death with too much rather than leave you confused with too little.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
My Awesome Proposal
So originally I had thought of writing on how so many of the characters we have read about struggle with knowing their identity, but Julie said that was too darn broad so here's what I am thinking.
While reading both Wide Sargasso Sea and The Mimic Men, it is very clear that both Antoinette and Ralph have no idea how to define themselves. They both start out as children from the island, but also suffer from "otherness" due to their family circumstances and their social lives (or lack there of). This alienation they experience in their childhood is what contributes to their search for identity throughout their entire lives.
With Ralph, we know just from the title that he is a "mimicking man," and there are signs that he is uncomfortable with his identity from the very beginning. He changes his name at school, and later on in life he is unable to cultivate any deep, meaningful relationships because of the overwhelming angst he feels because he doesn't know who he is. He sleeps with numerous strange women, even keeps a sex diary, and yet when he is in bed with a woman he actually enjoys (the chubby woman), he is unable to perform. Even when he marries he is unable to keep that relationship on the right track. His childhood experiences of being unwanted, ashamed of his family and even bullied are what attack his self esteem to the point where he isn't able to discover who he is, no matter what country or identity he takes on.
In Antoinette's case, it is the estrangement she experiences from both her mother and from her community that eventually causes her to loose touch with reality. She is constantly bullied as a child, and her mother is not the comforting support system that she would otherwise need to sustain a healthy self esteem. The sad truth is that Antoinette's mother is a detriment. She abandons her daughter, practically ignores her while she tends to her son, and this is something Antoinette carries with her through adolescence and into adulthood. She doesn't have a real family, nor does she find acceptance in her community. She was screwed from the beginning.
Even though the alienation these characters experience is brought on by different life situations, they are inherently the same in that it stemmed from childhood, and therefore their adulthood suffered because of it. Ralph has his insecurities held onto from childhood neglect and tries to find love through promiscuous sexual encounters, while Antoinette attempts to shed her family's stain of insanity by trying to fulfill a "normal" woman's destiny- getting married. Their parents directly effect their situation, and it is sad to watch the characters suffer at the hand of poor parenting.
If you have any suggestions at all how else I could spin this or narrow it down, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!! Thank you!
Annotated Bibliography
Stenberg, Gunilla. "Effects of maternal Inattentiveness on Infant Social Referencing." Infant and Child Development 12.5 (27 Nov 2003) : 399-419. Print.
Stenberg's experiment was to try and discover how big the connection was, if any, between a mother's attentiveness to her infant and the baby's response to the attention or lack thereof. This brings interesting information to my argument that Antoinette's insanity is brought on by an entire childhood of her mother's inattentiveness, and that she was in fact psychologically effected by her mother's general lack of interest in her.
Schmitt, David P., Gahyun Youn, Brooke Bond, Sarah Brookes, Heather Frye, Stefanie Johnson, Jennifer Klesman, Caitlin Peplinski, Jessica Sampias, Melissa Sherrill, and Christine Stoka. "When Will I Feel Love? The Effects of Culture, Personality, and Gender on the Psychological Tendency to Love." Journal of Research in Personality 43.5 (Oct 2009): 830-46. Print.
This is probably the most useful resource that I came across, as it directly effects both of the characters I am analyzing. Schmitt discusses how human childhood directly contributes how adults love or feel the need to love. It is a psychoanalysis of the different reasons adults search for love, and how childhood experiences influence this. It helps me prove how Ralph attempts to fill his emotional needs by having sex with countless partners, stemming from childhood neglect. It also explains why Antoinette tends to show "lower levels of emotional investment," being that she dealt with a stressful home life growing up.
"Displacement and Belonging." The Caberra Times (Australia) 13 Dec 2008: A.11. Print.
This article is basically a review and interview of Gillian Stovo, a South African author who wrote a book titled "Black Orchids." I didn't really use the information regarding the book, but in the interview portion Stovo discussed her experiences of losing her identity as she moved away from her home country of South Africa, and her testimony is valuable in describing the plight that both Ralph and Antoinette both face. However, I will be using this source specifically for Ralph, as it is more applicable because he leaves the islands to go to London.
Walker, Sue, Donna Berthelsen, Kym Lung. "Temperament and Peer Acceptance in Early Childhood; Sex and Social Status Differences." Child Study Journal 31.3 (2001): 177-92. Print.
This article I found particularly useful, as it delves into explaining how social relationships are effected by temperaments in children. Honestly a l lot of this article seemed like common sense, however I do feel like it explains how the unpopularity that Ralph and Antoinette both experience is later ingrained in their inability to function in normal social relationships. This of course all links back to the parenting situations that each of them face.
Wu, Nancy S., Laura C Schairer, Elinam Dellor, and Christine Grella. "Childhood Trauma and Health Outcomes in Adults With Co morbid Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders." Addictive Behaviors 35.1 (2010): 68-71. Print.
Wu defines exactly what emotional abuse and neglect consist of in the homes of children, and therefore it relates to my topic completely. Both Ralph and Antoinette suffer from being outsiders, not only in their communities but in their own homes, and I just used the working definitions that Wu provided of these terms to help explain both of their situations.
While reading both Wide Sargasso Sea and The Mimic Men, it is very clear that both Antoinette and Ralph have no idea how to define themselves. They both start out as children from the island, but also suffer from "otherness" due to their family circumstances and their social lives (or lack there of). This alienation they experience in their childhood is what contributes to their search for identity throughout their entire lives.
With Ralph, we know just from the title that he is a "mimicking man," and there are signs that he is uncomfortable with his identity from the very beginning. He changes his name at school, and later on in life he is unable to cultivate any deep, meaningful relationships because of the overwhelming angst he feels because he doesn't know who he is. He sleeps with numerous strange women, even keeps a sex diary, and yet when he is in bed with a woman he actually enjoys (the chubby woman), he is unable to perform. Even when he marries he is unable to keep that relationship on the right track. His childhood experiences of being unwanted, ashamed of his family and even bullied are what attack his self esteem to the point where he isn't able to discover who he is, no matter what country or identity he takes on.
In Antoinette's case, it is the estrangement she experiences from both her mother and from her community that eventually causes her to loose touch with reality. She is constantly bullied as a child, and her mother is not the comforting support system that she would otherwise need to sustain a healthy self esteem. The sad truth is that Antoinette's mother is a detriment. She abandons her daughter, practically ignores her while she tends to her son, and this is something Antoinette carries with her through adolescence and into adulthood. She doesn't have a real family, nor does she find acceptance in her community. She was screwed from the beginning.
Even though the alienation these characters experience is brought on by different life situations, they are inherently the same in that it stemmed from childhood, and therefore their adulthood suffered because of it. Ralph has his insecurities held onto from childhood neglect and tries to find love through promiscuous sexual encounters, while Antoinette attempts to shed her family's stain of insanity by trying to fulfill a "normal" woman's destiny- getting married. Their parents directly effect their situation, and it is sad to watch the characters suffer at the hand of poor parenting.
If you have any suggestions at all how else I could spin this or narrow it down, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!! Thank you!
Annotated Bibliography
Stenberg, Gunilla. "Effects of maternal Inattentiveness on Infant Social Referencing." Infant and Child Development 12.5 (27 Nov 2003) : 399-419. Print.
Stenberg's experiment was to try and discover how big the connection was, if any, between a mother's attentiveness to her infant and the baby's response to the attention or lack thereof. This brings interesting information to my argument that Antoinette's insanity is brought on by an entire childhood of her mother's inattentiveness, and that she was in fact psychologically effected by her mother's general lack of interest in her.
Schmitt, David P., Gahyun Youn, Brooke Bond, Sarah Brookes, Heather Frye, Stefanie Johnson, Jennifer Klesman, Caitlin Peplinski, Jessica Sampias, Melissa Sherrill, and Christine Stoka. "When Will I Feel Love? The Effects of Culture, Personality, and Gender on the Psychological Tendency to Love." Journal of Research in Personality 43.5 (Oct 2009): 830-46. Print.
This is probably the most useful resource that I came across, as it directly effects both of the characters I am analyzing. Schmitt discusses how human childhood directly contributes how adults love or feel the need to love. It is a psychoanalysis of the different reasons adults search for love, and how childhood experiences influence this. It helps me prove how Ralph attempts to fill his emotional needs by having sex with countless partners, stemming from childhood neglect. It also explains why Antoinette tends to show "lower levels of emotional investment," being that she dealt with a stressful home life growing up.
"Displacement and Belonging." The Caberra Times (Australia) 13 Dec 2008: A.11. Print.
This article is basically a review and interview of Gillian Stovo, a South African author who wrote a book titled "Black Orchids." I didn't really use the information regarding the book, but in the interview portion Stovo discussed her experiences of losing her identity as she moved away from her home country of South Africa, and her testimony is valuable in describing the plight that both Ralph and Antoinette both face. However, I will be using this source specifically for Ralph, as it is more applicable because he leaves the islands to go to London.
Walker, Sue, Donna Berthelsen, Kym Lung. "Temperament and Peer Acceptance in Early Childhood; Sex and Social Status Differences." Child Study Journal 31.3 (2001): 177-92. Print.
This article I found particularly useful, as it delves into explaining how social relationships are effected by temperaments in children. Honestly a l lot of this article seemed like common sense, however I do feel like it explains how the unpopularity that Ralph and Antoinette both experience is later ingrained in their inability to function in normal social relationships. This of course all links back to the parenting situations that each of them face.
Wu, Nancy S., Laura C Schairer, Elinam Dellor, and Christine Grella. "Childhood Trauma and Health Outcomes in Adults With Co morbid Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders." Addictive Behaviors 35.1 (2010): 68-71. Print.
Wu defines exactly what emotional abuse and neglect consist of in the homes of children, and therefore it relates to my topic completely. Both Ralph and Antoinette suffer from being outsiders, not only in their communities but in their own homes, and I just used the working definitions that Wu provided of these terms to help explain both of their situations.
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