A Blabbering Reflection on Quite Possibly the Best Class I'll Ever Take

3.) The Question of Literature was written on January 28^th, 2012. It was my first response blog. I used it to discuss and explore the idea of literature. I did my best to answer questions that Beth and Hannah had.

2.) After Apple-Picking was written on February 23^rd, 2012. It discusses the poem by Robert Frost called “After Apple-Picking.” I used the template provided to do a close reading of the poem.

1.) On Becoming Invisible was written on April 5^th, 2012. It looks into the meaning of the first paragraph of the first chapter of a book written by Ellison called “Invisible Man.”


I have chosen these three because I believe they are best writing of the semester. I fell that way because I feel like I learned the most from doing them, and I had most fun writing them. All of them helped me to think though things differently. Even though my blog post on Frost's poem took me the longest into the night out of any poem, I think I enjoyed it most.

Over the course of the semester I feel like I gained a better grasp on what it meant to read into a text. I learned how to better look into a text and pull out different meanings. In “The Question of Literature” I talk about the idea that literature can't be held down by a single definition, that it is deeper and more shallow than we could know. I don't disagree with anything I said in that post, however, there are things I thought at the beginning of the semester that I don't agree with now that sparked some of the ideas in that blog.

For instance, I used to feel that any conclusion that somebody could draw from a text was just as valid as the next. I don't think that any more. Now I believe that there are different levels of validity. The more backed up an idea about a text is the more valid the idea becomes. So while the meaning of literature can be very subjective, the meaning that is drawn out must have some sort of foundation. Without a foundation ideas crumble.

The other two posts are good examples of my ability to read into a text and build up my ideas using the text itself. This is something I wasn't very good at before. At least not to the extent I am now. I only wish I had more time to dive into ideas. I'm looking forward to the summer. This will be first real break from school in a long time.


I feel like I've done really well in this class. I have put a lot of effort forward. I struggle with perfectionism, so I stay up all hours trying to answer questions adequately until my brain stops functioning and I am forced to post whatever I have come up with, which actually turns out to be pretty good sometimes.

I always think hard about the questions I'm asked, and every time I've missed a reading or a blog entry I am disappointed. This class is the one I have enjoyed most and it is the one I have received the most from, at least this semester, possibly my whole career as a student. It is certainly in my top 3, anyway.

I have loved this class, and truly feel that every time I miss something assigned I missing out, not just on a grade, but on a level of understanding, and a deeper education. I don't feel that way in any of my other classes this semester, not really.

My main strength is my ability to analyze, to look deeply into things for meaning. I'm afraid this is also my greatest weakness, because it keeps me stuck in one place for far too long. I love how I can dive into something, but it take so much time and energy, I don't know how to tone it down without completely giving up.

As far as a grade goes, I suppose I would give myself a B. I know I haven't always completed the readings, and that becomes apparent in my quiz scores. I've also missed several blog posts, and pulled an all-nighter in order to prepare a mediocre presentation.

Other than those things, though, I feel like I've done well. The assignments I completed I put myself into. I loved exploring the texts with my classmates and Scott. It was a blast. I feel like there were days when even contributed some pretty good ideas.

The truth is, I've really enjoyed this class and I know that I will miss it. I feel like I have been really lucky to take it when I did. The classmates I have in this class have been a blast. I love hearing all of their ideas. Nobody seems to take over. I've really enjoyed getting to know everyone. I'm going to miss the discussions. I've never experienced a class dynamic quite like the one in this class. I feel like the dynamic was possible both because of the unique blend of personalities in the class and the excellent way Scott facilitated the class. I don't know who should get more credit. Maybe it's 50-50, I don't know, I just know it was great. I learned a lot about how people see literature, and therefore, a lot about literature. I think I learned something about leadership, and teaching too, but I'll have to ponder that more. I know I saw good leadership and teaching, I'm just not sure how much I picked up.

I'm really going to miss everyone in this class. It's been a blast, folks.  

Discussion Madness

To prepare for our small-group discussion I first read through the questions and circled the ones I was most interested in thinking about as I read the story. Then I made sure to read the story really carefully. Normally I don't have the time to reread things I need to read for school, but I realized the importance of this assignment so I carved out more time for it. I spent more time than I usually do reading “Notes of a Native Son” in order to make sure that I knew what was going on. Along the way I underlined or circled parts of the essay that would help me answer the questions I had selected.

I learned how more I can glean from a story or essay when I read it carefully. This exercise helped me to gain a greater appreciation for reading things thoroughly. I was surprised with the things I had learned. During the discussion things that had been percolating inside my mind came forward, and it turned out that I knew more than I thought I did about the various questions, even the ones I hadn't focused on.

I was also really impressed with the thoughts of my fellow classmates. I'm afraid I didn't take notes on the conversation, but I feel pretty lucky to be in a class full of brilliant people with deep ideas. I was really impressed with everybody's ability to share the discussion.

I really enjoyed the process of preparing for the discussion. I learned a lot from it. The type of preparation I did really helped me dive into the text on my own. However, I think I prefer the regular class style. I really like how we are divided into different groups regularly. Because of that process I've been able to get to know, on some level, everyone in the class. Since I know everyone a little bit I feel really comfortable most of the time speaking up when something comes to mind, even if I don't know if it is right, or even a great idea. This created a weird conflict in me during our small-group discussion because I felt like I had to hold myself back from speaking often once I had run out of responses. I'm not usually a big talker, so it was cool feeling so comfortable with the folks around me that I had to restrain the ideas in my head.  

Responding to Invisibility

Bree talks about a part of "The Invisible Man" that made her uncomfortable,

One part I particularly didn't like was the part on page 1139 when the boys are forced to watch the blonde woman dance. I understand it's purpose in the novel as being just another situation where the narrator has to endure a humiliating experience for the entertainment of his white oppressors but I feel like that could have been conveyed in a different way without having to be so graphic and demeaning...but perhaps that's the point right? To emphasize White America’s greed, lust and overall lack of regard for other people’s feelings.

I would agree, that part made me a little uncomfortable too.  I relate it back how the first paragraph struck me though. I feel like the narrator is willing to endure any kind of humiliation the white folks deal out in order to show them that he is the ideal black man. He'll suffer whatever they dish out in order to get some sort of affirmation from them. He wants them to tell him that he is who he is supposed to be.

On Becoming Invisible

 I was immediately drawn into the world Ellison created for “Invisible Man.” Part of the power of this story seems to be its accessibility. The first paragraph is fascinating, it seems vague while at the same time setting up the story to come. Ellison writes, “It goes a long way back, some twenty years.” By starting off his story with “It goes” Ellison is causing us to ask the question “what goes?” and having to ask this question draws us in as readers. We want to know what goes way back, and the story has only just started.

He goes on to say, “All my life I had been looking for something and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was.” Ellison is still being vague, but he is giving us more details. We now know that the character has been looking for something all his life. We still don't know what it is, so that raises the question, “what is he looking for?” Only two sentences in and we're already full of questions. We don't know what he's looking for, and maybe he didn't really know either because everyone else was trying to tell him what he's looking for. In fact in the next sentence he tells us that he “accepted their answers, too, though they were often in contradiction wand even self-contradicting.” He was letting other people tell him what he was looking for, even though they didn't make sense with one another, and sometimes didn't even make sense with themselves. It seems almost like a kind of desperation. He was so eager to find something that he forgot to make sure the things that were offered to him made sense.

The paragraph ends with the idea that the whole time he was just trying to figure out who he really was, and what he found was that you can't ask others to define you, “I am nobody but myself,” he writes, “an invisible man!” The first paragraph seems to tell the whole story.

Waste Land

The "Waste Land" by T.S. Elliot is a broad and meticulous work. It is full of allusions and highbrow references so it’s no wonder that Hannah said this of it:

           Elliot’s “Waste Land” seemed to just run on and on with not definite purpose other than

           just ideas, that I could see. Even after I read some supporting writings on the poem, I just

           didn’t see it.

“Waste Land” is the kind of work that needs to be read again and again before the reader can even begin to grasp what is being said. Even with many hours invested I don’t think a person could ever fully understand what Elliot is really trying to say, but that isn’t to say that it isn’t worth the effort.

Hannah approaches Hemingway's story in an interesting way. I like how she connects the black grasshoppers from the story with how people have to temporarily change in order to survive, especially in war:

They are black because they had to change to their new surroundings and eventually they will change back when their surroundings do as well. Maybe this is a hint about the war and the men who left for it. How when they left for war they had to change to fit their new odd surroundings and then eventually after they get home at some point they will change back to what they used to be, but until they change back they will stick to what they are comfortable with like the less appetizing cold food instead of the food fresh after its been cooked.

This was a new way for me to look at this story and even got me thinking about how life works and how events in our lives define us. Thinking about how events change us is especially interesting when applying the idea to war. In what ways are the changes that soldiers go through during war temporary, and in what ways are they permanent?

In "Big Two-Hearted River" I remember Nick being surprised that they are actually completely black, and not covered in something that makes them look black. Maybe this speaks to permanent change when he thought it should be temporary.

After Apple-Picking

After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost is a fascinating poem. I've casually listened to it and read it at least a dozen times.  It has a wonderful flow to it. I only know a little bit about Frost, but what I know is that his poems are never what they seem to be at first glance.


It feels like in this poem he may be talking about looking back over one's life with the coming of death. It seems like there are little hints that it is about coming death throughout the whole piece,

Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.

Both winter and sleep (or drowsing off) could be referring to death.
The apples that the speaker has picked could be accomplishments or maybe just segments of life. So when he talks about apples that hit the ground, "No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble" he could be talking about wasted opportunities, and maybe when he talks about them being turned into cider he is talking about learning from mistakes.


There is so much to this poem, lurking beneath the surface. I'm excited to dive into a little more.




1.) How is the title of the poem working?  What information is it giving?  How would the poem be different with a different title? 


The title "After Apple-Picking" launches the reader directly into the heart of the poem. Without the title the poem would have the same overall meaning because it doesn't give us any information that the poem itself doesn't eventually give us. However, the title lets us know the setting of the poem before we start reading it. Without the title it would take a little while before we knew what was going on.  


2.) List all of words you don’t know, or think you don’t know.  Look them up in the dictionary.  Write them down.

• Hoary
• Overtired (honorable mention, because it is a great word)

3.) Read the poem out loud.  What sounds do you notice in the poem?  Is there rhyme?  Are there any repeated sounds?  Write down the sounds you hear at work in the poem.


This is a tough question to me because of the overwhelming amount of repeated sounds within this poem. But there does not seem to be a definite pattern. There are lots of rhymes at the end of lines, but it seems almost chaotic. He even puts rhymes within the same line a few times. Maybe this scattered rhyme system is another way he saying something about life. If that is the case, perhaps he is suggesting that although life doesn't always follow a predictable pattern, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have rhythm. 


He also uses a large variety of rhymes. He doesn't come back to any of his rhyming pairs. For instance he rhymes "still" and "fill" and never revisits the "ill" rhyme. Perhaps this too speaks to part of what is beautiful about life. 


4.) What is literally happening in the poem?  Write a paragraph describing what is going on.  Where is this happening?  Who are the people in the poem?

On the surface the poem is about a lone apple-picker, thinking about his day of apple-picking. He talks about how much the the "harvest [he himself] desired" has worn him out. It even seems that this harvest that he had wished for is now going to haunt his dreams, "One can see what will trouble/ This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is."

5.) What are the images in the poem?  List five images you see in detail.  What do you know about them?  How is the poem using imagery?



This poem is filled to the brim with vivid imagery. Here are five:


1.

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree Toward heaven still,

2.

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sightI got from looking through a pane of glassI skimmed this morning from the drinking troughAnd held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.

3.

My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.

4.

There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.

5.

Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Frost uses imagery to add depth to this poem. Every image seems to be a metaphor for something. I feel like I could spend a really long time diving into the possible meanings of all these images. However, the one the baffles me most is the woodchuck. On the surface he is saying that if the woodchuck were around he could tell him whether or not he was about to hibernate (by the way, I had to look up whether or not woodchucks actually hibernate) or just sleep through the night like normal. I'm not sure what that means on a deeper level, though. What is the woodchuck? Is hibernation being related to death - "long sleep?" And why isn't the woodchuck around? Maybe he's already hibernating. 

6.) What do you know about the speaker?  List ten facts you can infer (the If-Then game).

1.

The speaker has mixed feelings about harvesting all those apples. On the one hand he cherished each apple. On the other hand they haunt him. Even when he wants to rest he can't help thinking about the apples left unpicked, the barrels left unfilled, and the apples in the cider heap.

2.

The speaker may have bitten off more than he could chew,

For I have had too muchOf apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.

3.
He wishes he could have accomplished more.


4.
It seems that although he is overtired he doesn't feel worthy of the rest he desires because of the parts of the job left unfinished.


5.
He seems conflicted about the fallen fruit. He says they,

Went surely to the cider-apple heapAs of no worth.

When he says, "As of no worth" it seems to me like saying, "as if they have no worth," which to implies that they really do have worth, even though they are being treated as if they don't. Their worth comes from their redemption from apples to cider, which is to say that they still have worth as apples.


6.
He is too tired to continue working or pursue his dreams, but he is not too tired to worry about what he should have done.


7.
He seems to question the way he sees the world when he talks about how he can't shake the strangeness that came from looking through a piece of ice. Looking through the ice seems to represent how he sees things, and he lets it break.






7.) Write a paragraph describing the tone of the poem.  Remember, tone is the speaker’s attitude toward his/her subject.  Most attitudes in poetry will be complex, i.e. more that one attitude.  List 10 words you think helps set this tone.



The tone is absolutely complex. The speaker is conflicted. He is haunted both by the work he completed and the work he failed to finish. Even though he wanted the abundant harvest he received, he seems to battle with whether or not it was what he really wanted in the end. 


Ten Tone Words:


1. Winter
2. Sleep
3. Hoary
4. Overtired
5. Touch
6. Cherished
7. Ten thousand thousand
8. Worth
9. Break
10. Appear/Disappear


8.) Does the poem have a formal structure?  If not, what effect does the lack of structure have?  If so, what effect does the structure have on the meaning of the poem?


I guess I'm not really sure what formal structure in a poem looks like. But I would say that it seems to be structured, although I can't see a discernible pattern. The structure makes it easy to read. The lack of stanzas is interesting. There are distinct thoughts, but they all run together. This creates a dream-like effect.


9.) Where does the tension lie in the poem?  Poetic tension can come in many forms. Is there any conflict in the plot/action of the poem?  Do images form a tension? Does the speaker and/or tone create tension in the poem?  List three poetic tensions you see at work.



1.
There is an overall tension going on within the the speaker. He doesn't know how to feel about the job he has done. He is haunted by what he has and hasn't done,

And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.

2.
There is tension in the imagery when he talks about his vision of the world,

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.

To me, there is a tension between melting and breaking. "Breaking" sounds so much more violent and quick, where "melting" sounds like something that would happen over a long time. But I suppose that melting could be a form of breaking. Perhaps when men break it in this melting fashion. It doesn't happen all at once. Maybe this is a poem about a man breaking.


3.
There is the consistent tension between the desire for peaceful sleep and the knowledge that it will not come,

One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.

10.)Are their any images, phrases, words, and sounds in the poem that you can't shake out of your head?  List three that resonate with you.


1. "Overtired"
2. "Pane of glass"/ "Hoary grass"
3. "Cherish in hand"




This poem has so much depth, I feel like I could spend many, many hours exploring all the possible meanings. During this short excursion I have been surprised by the many layers this poem has. It seems to both about the beauty and the frustration of life's imperfections.