Kblog

 Graphic literature is definitely my favorite type of reading. There are so many forms of graphic literature like comics, picture books and manga. Actually, one of my favorite things to read is definitely manga and second after that would probably be comic books. I prefer these types of readings because it is much easier to visualize and depict what you are reading when you get a clear picture and can actually see the characters for yourself. Plus the flashy style and cool action scenes are very nice to look at in certain graphic works, depending on the art style and illustrator. My favorite out of the six stories we read would probably be, "Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History", by Art Spiegleman mainly because of the style of art and also the gripping story that it depicts. I also like how the author is not afraid to show just how real and serious an issue suicide can be. It shows what it can be really like and I also am a fan of dark works that don't pull any pu...

 In the short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the story is told in diary entries and they show that the main character is slowly descending into madness and it is getting worse with each entry. This foreshadowed by her increasing paranoia and obsession with the mysterious figure behind the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. As her mental breakdown worsens, the readers are given a window into the perception and treatment of mental illness in the late nineteenth century. The husband John tries to treat her but it only ends up aggravating the decline of her mental health. There is way to cure her that could work using the rest cure by Weir Mitchell. In, "The Swimmer" by John Cheever, the main character Neddy Merrill wants to swim home 8 miles by using his neighbors' swimming pools and during this a violent storm hits. Neddy's fixation on swimming across the county shows his tendency to live buried in delusion, finding pleasure while refu...

 In the short stories, "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flanders O'Conner", "The Rocking Horse Winner" by D.H. Lawrence and "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. These stories all have a common theme of family and each one has their own unique perspectives issues within their families. For example, in "Everyday Use" a mother and her two daughters look back on their heritage and rediscover things that they never knew about themselves, leading to new realizations and goals. They find some old things in their home giving them new perspectives on their lives as a result. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" a family is going on a road trip. During this road trip the family gets into many arguments and there are also many disagreements on things and in the end they end up suffering a tragic fate with only Bobby and Hiram surviving. In, "The Rocking Horse Winner" a mother and son have dif...

 Margaret Atwood's "Happy Endings" give an interesting perspective on romance and relationships and it adopts an ingenious narrative structure to show a different kind of message. Atwood utilizes both a second person and third person omniscient point of view. She is able to achieve an emotionless narrative. The big message that she conveys in this short story is that the end point does not matter in a relationship, instead it is the process of how that end point was achieved. A perspective that she uses is writing different sections within the short story, there are 6 of them and they are A-F which contain different endings for each of them which is an interesting take. All of these options end up with death as the last thing to happen to them which is interesting. I do like Atwood's perspective here and I think it is interesting because it always keeps you on your toes when reading a different section not knowing how it is going to end or if it is going to have a goo...

 "Hills Like White Elephants"      In this story. the issues that plague the couple is the issue of talking, not communicating. This story highlights a conversation between an American man and his girlfriend. These two are just normally speaking, but neither of them are truly communicating with each other which shows the rift between the two. They both talk, but do not really listen or understand their points of view. The man is trying to convince his girlfriend to have an operation, which I believe is an abortion. Something he says is that he loves her, and that if she does the abortion then everything will go back to the way it was before with them. While the girl is being told this, she is indecisive and considers having the abortion just so the man will stop talking. These two characters just dance around each other and do not actually ever address the issue at hand, hence they are not really communicating and just talking. These issues are realistic because ther...