In the "Beginners", the two couples are sitting around talking about love while drinking gin. So Carver shows that when people are going to gather and converse about love, they need alcohol to get through it. Gin in this case, seems to be some sort of escape. It makes it easier to talk about love and the problems that come along with it. For Terri, it won't be that easy to speak about her past abusive relationship if she were completely sober. Alcohol just makes everything easier to deal with. It is very obvious to see that Herb hates his ex-wife, and he's upset that his first marriage didn't work out. As a succesful cardiologist, he can't be hindered by his emotional problems. So he definitely needed the alcohol to talk about his issues.
Besides the obvious, the gin represented the pain and troubles of love itself. When you wasted, you deny that you're drunk. This is exactly what happened in Terri's situation. She was so deep into the abusive relationship that she still defends Carl and his behavior.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Raymond Carver, "Beginners" and "Why Don't You Dance?"
In Raymond Carver’s two stories, “Beginners” and “Why Don’t You Dance?”, the subject is love. In “Beginners”, there are 4 people, 2 couples, who are having drinks together and the topic of love comes up. They all talk about how they got to be where they are now and their past relationships. Herb McGinnis, a cardiologist, thought that real love was that of the spiritual love. His wife, Terri, starts to tell of how she was in an abusive relationship. The other couple seemed to be the one that had the normal relationship. In “Why Don’t You Dance?” a man is having a garage sale and has the furniture set in the same way as it was inside the house. A young couple comes along and starts to look around, finally settling on buying the TV and the bed. The couple and the man all get drunk and then dance to a record player in the yard. The girl tries to tell everyone about what happened but for some reason, she wasn’t able to talk about it. So in both Carver’s stories, the subject definitely has a connection to love and the relationships we encounter in our lives.
Even though I have a hard time wrapping my head around this, I think the aspect of collective cultural ideology that Carver is examining is the role of relationships in our lives and what is expected of us. There are certain milestones that we all “should” reach by a certain age. Those milestones include: finishing education, leaving home, getting a job and become financially stable, getting married, and having kids. Of course, this is what shapes the American Dream. We all are also expected to be happy forever after if we do this right. But in these two stories, this is not the case. In “Beginners”, these are not the relationships that we think about having in our future. Herb has already had a failed marriage and he thinks about how he had managed to love his ex-wife one day but now hates her completely. Terri, his current wife, was in a terrible situation before meeting Herb. She had lived with a man, Carl, who beat her up constantly and threatened to kill her as well as Herb. His reason for his actions was because he loved Terri very much. This is not the type of love that we see advertised in movies and romance novels but even Terri herself confirms that he loved her. As a society, we do not approve of abusive relationships and that would turn into a scandal. But in this case, Terri openly talks about it and actually admits that sometimes she thinks about him. She argues with Herb that Carl loved her very much but in his own way. While I was reading this, I felt terrible for Terri and sorry for Herb. At the end of the story, Terri breaks down and tells the other couple that Herb has been suicidal recently. There’s a lot that could be said regarding this issue. Herb is what many of us wish to be when we are at his age. He is a successful cardiologist, and of course he is making tons of money. So he has already reached all those milestones that are expected of him. But he is not happy, his relationship with his ex-wife is draining him, and he misses his kids. This proves that even if we play our expected roles in society correctly, it does not mean that we will be happy.
In “Why Don’t You Dance?” the man is selling the furniture that used to belong to him and another woman. We don’t know what happened to their relationship, whether he was married or not, or where the woman is now. A significant part in this story is when the man and the young girl have a dance together. As they get close together, the young girl tells him that there are people watching them. The man tells her that it’s okay since this is his yard. As they dance, they become aware of each other and something definitely passes between them. The man says, “I hope you like your bed” and as the young girl pulls him closer and buries her head in his shoulder, she replies, “You must be desperate or something”. A couple of weeks later, the young girl cannot explain what happened back there at the yard sale but still tries to describe the situation to her friends. I really didn’t understand the point in this story but I know it has something to do with what happened between the man and the young girl. In the society we live in today, we sometimes do see an old man with a girl who is younger than him by way more than a few years. To be honest, we will question such a relationship more than we would wonder about a couple who seem to be in the same social circle.
I think the point of these two stories is that Carver wants to prove that not everyone is able to live their lives according to what society expects from them. We are not able to control who we fall in love with or who we come across in our lives. Carver showed that even we go according to our roles, we can still be unhappy, such as in Herb’s situation. He achieved all the milestones, so one would think he would be “stable”, but in reality, he’s not. The young girl in the second story is supposed to be in love with her boyfriend, and she is, but something did pass between her and the older man. Society would probably disapprove, but Carver showed that this is something we cannot control.
Even though I have a hard time wrapping my head around this, I think the aspect of collective cultural ideology that Carver is examining is the role of relationships in our lives and what is expected of us. There are certain milestones that we all “should” reach by a certain age. Those milestones include: finishing education, leaving home, getting a job and become financially stable, getting married, and having kids. Of course, this is what shapes the American Dream. We all are also expected to be happy forever after if we do this right. But in these two stories, this is not the case. In “Beginners”, these are not the relationships that we think about having in our future. Herb has already had a failed marriage and he thinks about how he had managed to love his ex-wife one day but now hates her completely. Terri, his current wife, was in a terrible situation before meeting Herb. She had lived with a man, Carl, who beat her up constantly and threatened to kill her as well as Herb. His reason for his actions was because he loved Terri very much. This is not the type of love that we see advertised in movies and romance novels but even Terri herself confirms that he loved her. As a society, we do not approve of abusive relationships and that would turn into a scandal. But in this case, Terri openly talks about it and actually admits that sometimes she thinks about him. She argues with Herb that Carl loved her very much but in his own way. While I was reading this, I felt terrible for Terri and sorry for Herb. At the end of the story, Terri breaks down and tells the other couple that Herb has been suicidal recently. There’s a lot that could be said regarding this issue. Herb is what many of us wish to be when we are at his age. He is a successful cardiologist, and of course he is making tons of money. So he has already reached all those milestones that are expected of him. But he is not happy, his relationship with his ex-wife is draining him, and he misses his kids. This proves that even if we play our expected roles in society correctly, it does not mean that we will be happy.
In “Why Don’t You Dance?” the man is selling the furniture that used to belong to him and another woman. We don’t know what happened to their relationship, whether he was married or not, or where the woman is now. A significant part in this story is when the man and the young girl have a dance together. As they get close together, the young girl tells him that there are people watching them. The man tells her that it’s okay since this is his yard. As they dance, they become aware of each other and something definitely passes between them. The man says, “I hope you like your bed” and as the young girl pulls him closer and buries her head in his shoulder, she replies, “You must be desperate or something”. A couple of weeks later, the young girl cannot explain what happened back there at the yard sale but still tries to describe the situation to her friends. I really didn’t understand the point in this story but I know it has something to do with what happened between the man and the young girl. In the society we live in today, we sometimes do see an old man with a girl who is younger than him by way more than a few years. To be honest, we will question such a relationship more than we would wonder about a couple who seem to be in the same social circle.
I think the point of these two stories is that Carver wants to prove that not everyone is able to live their lives according to what society expects from them. We are not able to control who we fall in love with or who we come across in our lives. Carver showed that even we go according to our roles, we can still be unhappy, such as in Herb’s situation. He achieved all the milestones, so one would think he would be “stable”, but in reality, he’s not. The young girl in the second story is supposed to be in love with her boyfriend, and she is, but something did pass between her and the older man. Society would probably disapprove, but Carver showed that this is something we cannot control.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Final Entry - Self Evaluation
Even though this class was not something I stressed over like some other people did, I still had some troubles, especially with the descriptive papers. But I think I’m better at giving the details now than I was when we first started writing those papers. I think a bit of a challenge is better than to lose sleep over this English class like some of my friends are. I’m so glad I was not put in those other classes.. So I know my writing is not perfect and there are many others who write much better than I do and that's why I'm glad that effort counts. I did put in a lot of thinking into my papers and I made sure to finish on time. I think I deserve an A for the effort or maybe an A- because I have looked at other people's writing and found that there's a lot of talent. I think my imagination runs faster than I can write and that's why I don't write as well as I think I should. Sometimes it’s hard to put all my thoughts down on paper when I have so many of them running through my head. Comparing my pieces in the early semester with the later ones prove to me that I have improved. At the end of every English semester in high school, I would go through all my papers and creative pieces in the order they were written and see how my writing has changed, even if by slightly. So all that matters to me is to have some kind of personal proof that that my writing has improved.
My blog design is not that exciting but I like simplicity. I'm not a creative person so this is the most you guys will be getting out of me.
=)
My blog design is not that exciting but I like simplicity. I'm not a creative person so this is the most you guys will be getting out of me.
=)
Analysis Essay
When I hit the teenage years, the rebellion act soon began to emerge. It started when I was around 12 or 13 years old and lasted for 2 to 3 years. Every young teenager who goes through this time knows how bad of a roller coaster our feelings seemed to be. When emotions hit, they hit deeply and it was easy to lose control of what we said and did. It was a horrible time, and I’m glad it’s over.
During these years, I became so involved in writing and that was all I did; besides, of course, listening to music constantly. Every time I got angry or upset, I would write. Even if it was just a line, it would be an emotional one. These types of entries weren’t journal entries. I was never able to put down everything in a direct manner on paper. I guess you can call them poetry or even songs. Everyone who was connected to me, in a good or bad way, appeared in my notebook. Names were not written out but if I read them now, I’d know who I was talking about. All this writing was done in a black and white composition notebook, the type that everyone uses for classes once in a while. Even though this went on for more than two years, there was only one book. All my “drafting” went into a long yellow Legal pad, the one with the blue lines and the double red margin lines on the right-hand side. Its cardboard back was one of the reasons that I loved writing in it for; I can just rest it on my lap and write. That notepad was in such a poor condition after I went through it. Its edges were curved in and the cardboard back was covered in scribbles from my doodling so you could not see the brownish, yellow material anymore. The black and white Composition notebook was only for the finished pieces - the ones I felt were worthy enough to be read over again. If you can see my class notes, you’ll see a lot of scribbles and crossing out. But not in the Composition notebook. That was the place where I copied the “good stuff” over again, and made sure it was kept clean and without any blemish.
I no longer have that notebook or the Legal pad. I ripped up the pages and threw them out three years ago. The teenage years are a time of experimentation and mistakes, some of them you will want to remember and some of them you will not wait to forget. My writing during that time is something I want to forget so I threw out the evidence in case I would come across it years later. I stopped writing and I forgot my talent. I made a point of not writing that now I have difficulties with English assignments, especially the creative free-writing type of ones. For me, a good piece of writing is personal and you’ll have to slam your emotions on paper. It is like taking a part of yourself and pasting on a blank canvas. That was how I used to write. But I don’t like writing personally anymore and my use of details has gone awry.
As human beings, we like to erase certain things and events from our memories. Maybe we did something stupid as kids or a sad event happened and we don’t want to remember them anymore. So many of us will try and rid ourselves of certain things that will trigger these memories. Of course, we all make mistakes and none of us are perfect – we’ve heard this tons of times before. The experiences that affect us the most are sometimes the ones we want to forget. We may be accused of being cowards and we’ll probably deny that accusation. It’s not that we like to run away from our past, but we think why dwell on something that you no longer can control? I think it’s safe to say that each one of us has at least one memory that we don’t like to bring up. But we learn to live with it and to accept it because we would not be the same person we are today if it weren’t for that specific experience.
During these years, I became so involved in writing and that was all I did; besides, of course, listening to music constantly. Every time I got angry or upset, I would write. Even if it was just a line, it would be an emotional one. These types of entries weren’t journal entries. I was never able to put down everything in a direct manner on paper. I guess you can call them poetry or even songs. Everyone who was connected to me, in a good or bad way, appeared in my notebook. Names were not written out but if I read them now, I’d know who I was talking about. All this writing was done in a black and white composition notebook, the type that everyone uses for classes once in a while. Even though this went on for more than two years, there was only one book. All my “drafting” went into a long yellow Legal pad, the one with the blue lines and the double red margin lines on the right-hand side. Its cardboard back was one of the reasons that I loved writing in it for; I can just rest it on my lap and write. That notepad was in such a poor condition after I went through it. Its edges were curved in and the cardboard back was covered in scribbles from my doodling so you could not see the brownish, yellow material anymore. The black and white Composition notebook was only for the finished pieces - the ones I felt were worthy enough to be read over again. If you can see my class notes, you’ll see a lot of scribbles and crossing out. But not in the Composition notebook. That was the place where I copied the “good stuff” over again, and made sure it was kept clean and without any blemish.
I no longer have that notebook or the Legal pad. I ripped up the pages and threw them out three years ago. The teenage years are a time of experimentation and mistakes, some of them you will want to remember and some of them you will not wait to forget. My writing during that time is something I want to forget so I threw out the evidence in case I would come across it years later. I stopped writing and I forgot my talent. I made a point of not writing that now I have difficulties with English assignments, especially the creative free-writing type of ones. For me, a good piece of writing is personal and you’ll have to slam your emotions on paper. It is like taking a part of yourself and pasting on a blank canvas. That was how I used to write. But I don’t like writing personally anymore and my use of details has gone awry.
As human beings, we like to erase certain things and events from our memories. Maybe we did something stupid as kids or a sad event happened and we don’t want to remember them anymore. So many of us will try and rid ourselves of certain things that will trigger these memories. Of course, we all make mistakes and none of us are perfect – we’ve heard this tons of times before. The experiences that affect us the most are sometimes the ones we want to forget. We may be accused of being cowards and we’ll probably deny that accusation. It’s not that we like to run away from our past, but we think why dwell on something that you no longer can control? I think it’s safe to say that each one of us has at least one memory that we don’t like to bring up. But we learn to live with it and to accept it because we would not be the same person we are today if it weren’t for that specific experience.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010: Media Free Reaction
I am actually feeling a bit jittery – I wasn’t able to sit still in Stats this morning since I usually text in that class. Or sleep. My fingers got so used to texting and typing so it feels weird to go 3 days without my phone. I am anxious, every day I keep wondering who posted on my wall or tagged me, or sent me requests. You never know what those idiots are posting and commenting on so you have to keep track of what’s happening on your page. I freakin’ hate this experiment, and I’m never doing it again. I don’t even know why the heck I was thinking of doing the 7 days. I’m getting annoyed and frustrated. Now I actually have to look to find something to do and that’s not always easy sometimes. We already know we’re addicted – I’m sure we all found that out from the first day – so why do we have to continue?!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Girl Starved to Death in South Korea (article)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/05/korean-girl-starved-online-game
I cannot begin to imagine the insanity of this couple. If you are not capable or taking care of your own kid, then don’t have any from the start. The fact that these people are grown adults makes the situation even worse. How do you forget to feed your own child? The obsession with raising the virtual daughter, Anima, is just too ridiculous. I can’t wrap my head around it. This couple obviously has no sense of responsibility or any sense for that matter. This is why people need to have jobs and have something to do to keep them busy and away from the internet. If you have no work and are free all day, then it is possible to spend that many hours on the internet playing such a game. I actually think that these virtual life games need to be banned. I know I may sound a bit extreme but if people had only one life, they’ll take care of it. People play these games because they are not satisfied with their own lives. This is why so many of us look for another source of escape, and with today’s sense of imagination, it’s pretty easy to get hooked.
I cannot begin to imagine the insanity of this couple. If you are not capable or taking care of your own kid, then don’t have any from the start. The fact that these people are grown adults makes the situation even worse. How do you forget to feed your own child? The obsession with raising the virtual daughter, Anima, is just too ridiculous. I can’t wrap my head around it. This couple obviously has no sense of responsibility or any sense for that matter. This is why people need to have jobs and have something to do to keep them busy and away from the internet. If you have no work and are free all day, then it is possible to spend that many hours on the internet playing such a game. I actually think that these virtual life games need to be banned. I know I may sound a bit extreme but if people had only one life, they’ll take care of it. People play these games because they are not satisfied with their own lives. This is why so many of us look for another source of escape, and with today’s sense of imagination, it’s pretty easy to get hooked.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Media Free Article - University of Maryland
I honestly don’t think it’s that bad to go one day with media. I’m pretty sure it will be difficult, especially for some of us, but it’s only one day. I understand our friends will think we died if we don’t reply back to their text messages within the hour, but if it’s only for 24 hours, I think we’ll survive. We’ll just have to endure verbal assaults from our friends when we get back on to the social network.
I was pretty surprised at how serious the effects were on the 200 students of the University of Maryland. They really made it seem like an alcohol or drug addiction with their symptoms of withdrawal, anxiety, as well as feeling miserable and antsy. One student wrote that she finds it sickening to find out how clearly addicted she was. Even though I text and Facebook every day, I don’t think I’m addicted to that extent. I probably can last one day but it will be difficult and a bit irritating. I think I may become a tad bit jittery since I always feel such an urgent need to check my text messages or my Facebook page. It is sad to realize how much we depend on technology to go through our days. Even as I am writing this, I am looking around and seeing everyone on either a laptop or a Blackberry, and listening to their iPod. In the whole lounge, there is not one person reading a book. I am also pretty sure that not every single one of those people is doing homework.
Since we live in such a fast-paced world, we need some form of communication that is just as fast. So I understand why so many of us rely on texting and Facebook and other forms of technology to stay connected to family and friends. Not every person has the time every day or week to visit their relatives and friends. I still like to actually see my friends and interact with the rest of civilization every once in a while.
After reading this article, I started thinking about our own “Media Free” assignment for the rest of the week. I think I can last a day, maybe two but not more than that. Sometimes I wish we still lived in a world where technology was nonexistent, just for the simplicity of things. But yet again, with so many things occurring around the world, I think it’s necessary to keep track of these events in order to stay updated. Technology does make our lives a bit easier but at the same time, I fear what the world would be like twenty years from now. If we are so dependent on our technical gadgets now, I wonder how we would be like in the future.
I am pretty curious about how the “Media Free” assignment will go. I wonder how long I’ll last and hopefully, I will not be as addicted as the Maryland students turned out to be.
I was pretty surprised at how serious the effects were on the 200 students of the University of Maryland. They really made it seem like an alcohol or drug addiction with their symptoms of withdrawal, anxiety, as well as feeling miserable and antsy. One student wrote that she finds it sickening to find out how clearly addicted she was. Even though I text and Facebook every day, I don’t think I’m addicted to that extent. I probably can last one day but it will be difficult and a bit irritating. I think I may become a tad bit jittery since I always feel such an urgent need to check my text messages or my Facebook page. It is sad to realize how much we depend on technology to go through our days. Even as I am writing this, I am looking around and seeing everyone on either a laptop or a Blackberry, and listening to their iPod. In the whole lounge, there is not one person reading a book. I am also pretty sure that not every single one of those people is doing homework.
Since we live in such a fast-paced world, we need some form of communication that is just as fast. So I understand why so many of us rely on texting and Facebook and other forms of technology to stay connected to family and friends. Not every person has the time every day or week to visit their relatives and friends. I still like to actually see my friends and interact with the rest of civilization every once in a while.
After reading this article, I started thinking about our own “Media Free” assignment for the rest of the week. I think I can last a day, maybe two but not more than that. Sometimes I wish we still lived in a world where technology was nonexistent, just for the simplicity of things. But yet again, with so many things occurring around the world, I think it’s necessary to keep track of these events in order to stay updated. Technology does make our lives a bit easier but at the same time, I fear what the world would be like twenty years from now. If we are so dependent on our technical gadgets now, I wonder how we would be like in the future.
I am pretty curious about how the “Media Free” assignment will go. I wonder how long I’ll last and hopefully, I will not be as addicted as the Maryland students turned out to be.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Media-Free Week
A week without texting or going on facebook is pretty bad. I mean, I can handle not going on facebook but I need some type of communication to let people know I’m still alive. If I go a week without answering my texts, people will either think I’m ignoring them and hate me for a while, or just think something is terribly wrong and I’m in need of necessary help. Not watching TV is not that bad, I think I can handle it. I wonder how long I will last..
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The "Perfect" Article
The “perfect” article for me paper would be titled, “God in the Media”. This article would be about how the idea of religion has changed into something that the media uses to influence people and take advantage of them. Since the beginning of time, religion was a sacred thing to each person who believed in higher Being. Over the years, it has been thrown into ads and other schemes of media to try to persuade and push people in a certain direction. Nowadays, God only seems to want money, and this is what the media portrays. It is no longer about the core of your beliefs and that is no longer respected.
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