Rappaccini's Daughter

Rappaccini's Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is not one of my favorite stories. Unlike Clary I am really annoyed by his language. I always compare it to the language of Jane Austen, who I know wrote at a different time, but I feel like Hawthorne is trying to emulate that way of writing and it is just not as effective. It seems forced, like he was trying to hard to have this interestingly florid language that is highly intellectual. It just seems flat and I don't understand what he is trying to say. I know this makes me have to read slower and try to understand what the meaning of the story is, but it impairs my intake of the content. I feel like I haven't retained any of what Hawthorne was trying to say.

Also, the setting made me a little crazy because I am not sure if it is fairly factual or not. There is one point at the beginning of the story when he mentions Italy as a country....but I don't know if Italy was unified at the time when the story is set. He also mentions that Beatrice is like a tropical sunset, but would Giovanni or Hawthorne have seen a tropical sunset? 

I also question the character of Giovanni. I think he is very ungrateful and full of himself. When he is talking to Baglioni, he acts as if he doesn't respect him at all...but is just listening to him because he can get information out of him. And Baglioni, in turn, seems to be only using Giovanni. After they run into Rappaccini in the street, Hawthorne reveals that Baglioni could be jeaslous that Rappaccini is studying Giovanni...before Baglioni got the chance too. It is almost like he claimed Giovanni because he knew his father. 

I did notice this read that Hawthorne is very attentive in his writing. I have to wonder if that was intentional, to mirror the attentiveness of Rappaccini to his garden and science. It seems like Hawthorne really wants to give the reader hidden clues and meanings constantly. He also has a lot of foreshadowing thrown into the text. He always uses words that could describe a character in the end. Having read this before, I picked up on it more this time. However, my initial reaction to this story was not very positive, and it is the same this read. Unfortunately. 

Essay 1

I think I'm going to write about "Our Hurried Children" and how it relates to some of the sotires we have read in class. I am really interested in childhood and how our society deals with children and education. I'm excited!

I just wanted to add more to my ideas for my essay. I think I don't really want to focus that much on any of the fiction stories that we wrote. I am interested in early childhood education, and even though I know a lot about it, I still would like to expand my knowledge. I think in this essay I want to talk about different approaches to early childhood education and which ones seem to work. I went to a school that pioneered a focus on different education beliefs when i was younger, the school where my mother works now, so I have some personal experiences that can help me develop an argument.

I think I am going to do research on effectiveness of different techniques. I may actually visit my mother's school to see if I can pull anything from that. I would also love to involve other medias. I am trying to find a documentary about Reggio Amelia, the philosophy my mother's school adapts, or about childhood in general. I like using contrasting medias in my research. I am a visual person, so watching something impacts me more than reading about it.

I am still in the development stages, but I hope to get some books and find some documentaries and then I'll be on my way!

Our Hurried Children

Early childhood education is something that i find very interesting. I think it is probably because my mother works in a preschool that has done extensive research in early childhood education. I enjoyed reading Our Hurried Children by David Elkind because it shows the importance of having a childhood and what our society does to children. Even though this essay was written over 20 years ago, the material is still prevalent.

There is a balance that is lost when dealing with childhood. Sometimes there is immense pressure and stress put on children because it is thought that treating kids like adults is the best way to educate them. But then there is lost time to actually be a child in every sense. Children should not have to deal with the stresses of adulthood...schools are taking away play time and imaginations. And the opposite side is taking the approach that kids are mentally inferior and are not given credit to their amazingness. I know a child who, at 5 years old, taught herself how to play Imagine by John Lennon on the piano. She had no help whatsoever. This is an example of how much our society underestimates the power of the child brain.

I think our society needs to shift the views of children. I think we need to wake up and see that children have incredible power, and that they just don't have the outlets to exert that power. I know this must sound like some fanatic shpeel, but I really believe that we can learn so much from children. Just going to my mother's school and watching the children play and create things makes me feel so inadequate because I feel like my education has slanted my learning to just be book smart, and not be able to venture out into different mediums. The children are so well rounded, and happy. I think our educational system needs to be reformed to accommodate the different ways people learn.

So enough on education....

I'll do some more research and write another post soon.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor is one of my favorite short stories. I like the sense of Karma in this story. It seems like the grandmother's whole life has led up to her encounter with the Misfit. She is this intensely annoying woman who talks all the time and doesn't really care about anything but her outward appearance. I don't think that she deserved the fate she got, but she definitely didn't lead a life that would repel any harm.

I think it is interesting how O'Connor used religion in this story. She was a very religious person, and so she involved morals into her stories. In this story, the grandmother uses religion to make herself look better to other people. She also uses religion as a bargaining tool with the Misfit. She says "If you would pray, Jesus would help you," to convince the Misfit that he is worthy of something better than killing people. It seems like she is only a good Christian when it is imperative to her survival.

I also think the grandmother's feelings towards her family are very telling to her true character. She seems to ignore all of what her son says, bringing her cat along, and disregards her daughter-in-law because she is not as worried about what the outside world thinks of her. The grandmother also thinks that her grandchildren are spoiled and seems to tolerate them, only because she has to. And her family, in turn, tolerates her, but not as much as she would like.

I am interested in her obsession with her appearance to the outside world. She is very concerned that she upholds a ladylike veneer, even if she was lying dead in a ditch. I think there were lots of old white southern ladies in the fifties who felt the same way. Society was a big part of how people acted. Today, we tend to relate to society, but don't let it run our lives. At least, i hope that's what happens.

There are so many facets to this story, it is hard to touch on everything. As I said before, this is one of my favorite short stories. It is complex and makes the reader think about the way they live their life. It makes us reflect on our characters and realize how our actions could play out in our lives. I think that shows powerful writing.