Week 9 Analysis: The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon was another interesting read. I had heard of the movie version before but have never seen it. The story starts off right in the middle of the action and gives very little exposition or build up to the characters in the story. The story starts with the character know as "Spade." The story jumps right in with Spade talking to another character Cairo about paying Spade to follow a woman  around. They have a small chat and Spade eventually returns to hits apartment where the next character, Brigid, is waiting for him. They also chat and it turns out that Brigid has also hired Spade to help her. Context clues suggest that Spade is some sort of bodyguard or private investigator that will help people out if they pay him. Brigid and Spade leave the apartment and go to meet with Cairo. What made this story more enchanting was it's use of imagery and the setting. Being a frequenter of San Francisco lines that set up the imagery like "Herbert's Grill on Powell Street" helps me visually the story more because I know where and what Powell Street looks like. Overall this story has a dark and eerie to it. The characters talk with such a dry and serious tone that whenever I try to envision the characters a black and white scene like something out of Casablanca comes to mind. The complete blandness of the characters, and the delivery in their lines that show just how hollow and devoid the characters are makes me more intrigued in to their characters. The nonchalant delivery of words like " just wanted to know, because if he gets to be a nuisance I may have to hurt him" and "That's good. There goes the curtain. Good night." from characters like Spade give shows his characteristics, mostly as someone who is a worker and puts his job first before his humanity. I think characters like Spade are hard to portray, because instead of making the character seems cold you could make the argument that the author just is not a good writer. This is not the case, and I think the author is able to bring his characters to life because Hammett was an investigator, and he knows the inner working of the trade. I did enjoy this writing and I hope to read more like it in the future

Week 8: Reading and Writing Survey

Survey.

So far in this class I do feel as though my writing and reading skills have improved. I never used to take notes while reading a story before and taking the reading notes every few lines or so helped me to analyze what I was reading and get a better grasp as to what the author was intending. While I do think it is helping, it is starting to get a bit repetitive for me. Doing the same assignments every week is helping me get consistent, but at the same makes the reading feel like more and more of a chore that I have to knock out every week. In all I am certain that the work I am doing is helping me improve, and that I can continue to improve throughout my academic career

Week 8 Analysis: To The Stone Cutters

To the Stone-Cutters

To the Stone Cutters was a short but powerful read that I thoroughly enjoyed. What was emphasized the most in this poem was the question of what we should want to leave behind after we are gone. I have pondered this question a lot and I think that part of the strive we as humans have to be great and be successful is so that we will remembered throughout the ages for the people that we were during our lifetime. I think anybody would rather be known as the person who helped others or gave back to their community rather than a bad person who did evil deeds. Jeffers wants to leave his legacy behind through his poetry, much like a stone-cutter carves their legacy in to the stone. The carving of a legacy in to history is a reminder to the people of the future that you did exist and that you walked the grounds of the Earth before they did, along with the rest of your contemporaries. "For man will be blotted out, the blithe earth dies, the brave sun Die blind, his heart blackening." Lines like these show how the author views poetry, much like stone carvings, to be a timeless piece of work. While your physical body will run it's course, and eventually wither away, your piece of writing could be carried on theoretically forever, and people hundreds, maybe even thousands of years in to the future will know that you did in fact exist. Leaving behind a legacy is something that people should strive for, and is a good aspiration to have. Poets leave behind their legacy and put their blood, sweat and tears in to their work so that nothing about their life gets left behind.

Week 7 Analysis: Hollywood Mammy

Hollywood Mammy is a short piece that hold a lot of depth to it, and the context behind the writing of this story makes it that much more interesting. This piece is written about the character Mammy from the movie "Gone With the Wind." Mammy is played by Hattie McDaniel and is one of the first African Americans to ever win an Oscar. Hattie's portrayal of the character Mammy is what you would expect of a 60's portrayal of an African American on a plantation, and having seen the movie I can attest that McDaniel's performance for playing her role is spectacular and accurate. The problem herein lies in the fact that McDaniel is receiving praise and being glorified for protruding stereotypical and blatantly racist ideas about the African American race. In the reading Langston tries to show just how McDaniel feels about being awarded for basically making fun of her own race, and the damage that causes not only to her but to the entire race as itself. It brings down African American's as a whole by showing that making fun of blacks in a time like this can be seen as amazing, and when you are the butt of the joke, you and everyone associated with you becomes the joke. The author uses phrases like "in Hollywood I make my living pretending to be dumb" to show just how it must feel to be an actor with capabilities far beyond what you are allowed to work with, and still get praise for basically making a fool out of yourself. I think what really drove Langston to write this piece was the complacency of McDaniel during the time. McDaniel really could not do anything about her situation because fighting back against her authority and trying to show herself off as the person she was would have been very bad, and she would have lost her job. Langston is trying to be the voice of the unspoken and does a great job of showing what feelings African Americans had during this time period. 

Week 7 Reading Notes B: Hollywood Mammy

Hollywood Mammy

Hollywood Mammy is a short piece that hold a lot of depth to it, and the context behind the writing of this story makes it that much more interesting. This piece is written about the character Mammy from the movie "Gone With the Wind." Mammy is played by Hattie McDaniel and is one of the first African Americans to ever win an Oscar. Hattie's portrayal of the character Mammy is what you would expect of a 60's portrayal of an African American on a plantation, and having seen the movie I can attest that McDaniel's performance for playing her role is spectacular and accurate. The problem herein lies in the fact that McDaniel is receiving praise and being glorified for protruding stereotypical and blatantly racist ideas about the African American race. In the reading Langston tries to show just how McDaniel feels about being awarded for basically making fun of her own race, and the damage that causes not only to her but to the entire race as itself. It brings down African American's as a whole by showing that making fun of blacks in a time like this can be seen as amazing, and when you are the butt of the joke, you and everyone associated with you becomes the joke. The author uses phrases like "in Hollywood I make my living pretending to be dumb" to show just how it must feel to be an actor with capabilities far beyond what you are allowed to work with, and still get praise for basically making a fool out of yourself.

Week 7 Reading Notes A: In the Land of the Free

The story "In the Land of the Free" is a heartbreaking tale of a foreigner coming to America and losing what is most dear to her. This story reflects the author, Edith Eaton, and her true struggles when immigrating to America, specifically San Francisco in the mid 1900's. Even though Eaton was only half chinese, she was still discriminated against and was meant out to be less than human because she was not white (fully) and because she was a woman. In the story, Lae Choo is a woman who's instinct for maternity is shown, and it is clear that she loves her child more than anything else in the world. You can see the devastation in the character when the government forcefully takes the child away from her. Lae Choo's husband is more reluctant to oppose authority, and must force Lae Choo too let them take her son. Hom Hing tries to tell Lae Choo that it will only be for a little while but this is no consolation for her, as by the morning the next day the first thing Lae Choo says is to bring back her son. In the end Lae Choo gives up everything she has, her jewlrey and everything that she owns just so that she can get her son back. Lae Choo convinces a lawyer and after all the turmoil, Lae Choo is finally giver he son back, but her son no longer wants to be with her anymore.

Week 6 Analysis: Man With The Hoe

The Man With the Hoe is a great piece that signifies the time in which it was written. At this time city workers and farmers were at odds. City workers and industrial workers were all the rage and everyone was moving in to bigger cities to make more money. The Man with the Hoe is a call to all the people who were still farming and still out in the fields doing the hard work, and this call was to tell the people that they were the true backbone of society. The author clearly felt that people who were still doing the hard work of society were the true men and the biggest part of society, because they provide the supplies which are necessary for life. The poem asks "is this the handiwork you give to God, this monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?" this line says to me that those who build things that are not natural and do jobs in buildings and cities must show these to God at some point and in essence these things would be abominations to God. Meanwhile a life of farming and work in the natural sunlight doing processes that the earth allows for would be more pleasing to God because this is what God intended for us to do. The author closes the poem asking about the future of the people who think that what they do is good enough for the future, and for God."How will the Future reckon with this Man? How answer his brute question in that hour? When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores? " If humanity were to rebel and life were to revert back to primitive means, then those without skills and knowledge of the land would be doomed. In all I really enjoyed this poem and the way that the author speaks to his fellow workers. He clearly knows how important natural workers and farmers are too society, and during this point in the industrial revolution where workers were leaving farming behind to make more money in the big cities, poems like these that reminded people that farmers are the backbone of society were a necessity.