Plays: Cultural Context

This week we were assigned to read "A Raisin in the Sun". I have really enjoyed reading ACT 1, Scene 1 of this play. The title for this play comes from the poem, written by Langston Hughes, titled "Harlem". This play was written by an African American woman named Lorraine Hansberry. Her play was the first by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. This play is about a family who lives in a poor black Chicago neighborhood in the 1950's. The family in the story, the Youngers, survive by working for white people. They are in near poverty, but get lucky with a large inheritance of money. Now they must argue about what to spend the money on. Everyone in the family has their own opinion of where this money should go. The way this play is written helps show the culture of these people. It is easy to see their race and the time period by their dialect and the topics they talk about. Also, by throwing terms of money around you can see the time period because it shows how valuable a little amount of money is to them. The way they are living shows that they are almost in poverty. Many family members share this small house and some of them do not even have their own room. I really like this play so far because the arguments between the different people are just funny. Even though they are being serious, it is amusing the way they go about the things they say and do. I cannot wait to finish reading this play to see how it ends. I think the writer wrote this play well and I love how she used true African American dialect from that time period.

Short Stories of this Week

We were assigned a few short stories this week to read. Some of the stories were in the "love" section and some were in the "war" section. I thought that all of these stories were well written and kept me interested. All of the authors used good imagery words and had great story lines. I liked the fact that some of the authors used true examples and facts to tell their stories. I am still unsure which story I will choose to write about for my second essay. I am thinking about writing on "A Rose for Emily" because I found it a very interesting and a weird story. I wouldn't prefer writing about any of the war stories because it makes me sad. My uncle is in the army and is over in Iraq right now. He will not be back at home until fifteen months from now. I do not really like reading about wars, people fighting, and soldiers dying. I try to stay positive when he's overseas in a dangerous place. I also don't prefer stories with a lot of violence, no matter the situation. "A Rose for Emily" was in the "love" section of the book and the story line didn't bother me any. Also, I feel like I could write a lot on this story because it deals with depression and things like that. My grandmother was manic depressive so I know a lot about that and I can relate to this story in certain ways. I will probably start writing my essay on this story tomorrow.

Revising My Paper

I didn't have that many problems with writing our first short essay. I enjoyed the poem that I chose to write about. I think maybe there may have been some miscommunication with how we were suppose to write this paper. Also, I think that I was confused about how we were suppose to discuss literary techniques and strategies within our paper. I thought that we were to write about what strategies we used when we read our poem and how we interpreted it. After having our meeting to discuss my paper, I realized that we were actually suppose to explain how the author had used these strategies and techniques. I found that the meeting we had was very helpful and useful to me. I was aware of mistakes I had made as well as what could be changed into something else to make it sound better. I was given a lot of suggestions that I am going to take advantage of. I am ready to revise my essay for my final draft. I feel that now I can write a really awesome paper after clarifying exactly what I am suppose to write about as well as having received some helpful hints. Also, I will be prepared to present a well written paper for our next short essay that is due. I plan to meet you with in the future when writing my papers. This was a great help and I feel that all professors should do this for their students. Especially since now I know exactly what you are looking for and what you consider a well written paper.