Marilyn's Literature Blog

In this story, there is a man named Demitri who is married but unhappy in his marriage. He is in the beautiful place of Yalta, where he sees a beautiful lady names Anna, who is out walking her Pomeranian. They have an affair and then later decide to part their separate ways. Later, Demitri decides that he loves Anna and wants to be with her. Anna was terribly worried that Demetri did not respect her, because they had had sex. Demetri actually loved her.
I think Demetri loved Anna so much, and was initially attracted to her, only because of her differences compared to his own wife. He disliked his own wife, so he wanted a woman who was the polar opposite of her. Anna was just this girl. He pursues her once he realizes his love for her, and hope that they will be together.
Later in the story, in ends with Demetri hoping that one day they will be together and not have to hide their love affair from others. The ending is very ambiguous and leaves the reader to determine if Anna and Demetri stay together or just end up parting ways later on down the line. I like this ending because it gives the reader some creative freedom to interpret as he or she likes. This reminds me of a type of youth novel that was popular when I was younger. These novels would start out with a story, in the story the main character (which was supposed to be the reader) would go through a series of events. Typically some sort of conflict or situation would come about that would require the subject to make a decision. The reader would be given control over this decision. Based on the readers decision, he or she was instructed to flip to a certain page to continue the story. In this way, the reader controlled the course of the story and the ultimate ending. Perhaps Checkov's "The Lady with the Dog" was the source or inspiration for these novels.

This story is strange and dark. I think its quite funny how the story was inspired by a drugged induced stupor. Coleridge dediced to take a bunch of Opiates and then read about Kubla Khan. I found it weird that he decided to read while taking drugs. This does not seem like what I picture drug user doing while taking drugs. I picture drug users to go out to parties and hang around other people. Anyhow, once Coleridge started reading he soon fell asleep. This led him to dream of Kubla Khan. His dream was dark and gothic and very weird. Later he, woke up and decided that his dream was so interesting that he should write it down so that he would not forgot. As he started to write, he was interupted by a visitor at the door. After the visitor left, he tried his hardest to remember the dream, but he said that he couldn't remember it as well as before.

I can relate to Coleridge with his diffulties in remember his dreams. In High School I took a psychology course that required us to journal our dreams and then interpret what we thought they meant. We were instructed to write the dreams down as soon as we woke up, because we would remember them best then. I remember several times when I would wake up late for school and not have time to write my dreams down becaues I needed to get ready for class. Then, I would try to write my dreams down once I got to school. Usually my memory of the dream was much less vivid by the time I reached school. The fact that I had to get ready for school was an interuption to my writing, much like Coleridge's guest knocking at his door.

I did not understand what was going on at all here. I feel that I put more than a reasonable amount of effort into trying to figure out what the author was saying here, I just could not get it. I was really frustrating and annoying because it made my brain feel like mush and my self esteemed plummeted. I felt as smart as a brick! :-) I was very relieved to learn in class that the poet actually WANTED me to feel this way when I was reading it. I like the message that Dr. Angel-Cann said was in the poem, I just still can not see the idea very clearly. I even gave the reading a second shot and it was to no avail. Oh well, I guess I will not understand everything I read no matter how hard I try. I prefer things to be written in a much more diret way. I dont mind the subject matter being difficult to understand, but I would prefer it not to be because of words the author chose to use.

This story was so glum and depressing. My favorite characters were Nagg and Nell. I felt very sorry for them. Hamm was a creul and ungreatful son, making his mother and father living in ash bins with lids and sheets over the top. His parents had to beg for their "pap", which I envision to be this nasty gruel of food mashed together. This is no way to treat the people that are responsible for your very life. Hamm seems to hate life, and feels depressed, so he aims to make everyone around him as miserable as he is. This is a really crummy outlook on life, and it really doesn't accomplish any point to make others so miserable. In the scene where Nagg comes out of his container and knocks on the lid of Nell's container to ask for a kiss, I felt sad when I pictured Nagg and Nell straining as hard as they can to reach each other's lips, but to only have to give up because their containers are too far apart. Poor Nagg and Nell. I've seen dogs treated better than they were. But, the ironic part is the fact that Nagg and Nell seem happier with their lousy meager exhistance than Hamm does with his own. Hamm has a servant and a house, but yet he is the sad one. It seems to serve him right.

I thought this peice of literature was soooo long and boring. I wanted to cry when I started to read it, and barely made myselfe complete it. Perhaps this is just me being lazy because it is Christmas break. This was by far my least favorite story of the semester. Because I was so sleepy during the reading, I have very little memory of what went on. I do think it was sad and I didn't like how the lovers did not end up together though.

I did not like this story because it was dark and gloomy. It made me kinda worry about my own life. Life is so short, and I sometimes worry that I am not living my life the way that I should. Perhaps I put too much time into school and my future career and not enough time into spending with my family. I dont want to have a long list of regrets when I and getting old. I think that has to be an aweful feeling, to know that you have wasted you life. Poor Ivan lived a life that he thought would please everyone around him, but in all his worries over what others would think, he forgot to live a life that he himself would be proud of. Also, he alienated himself from him family and his kids. By the time he started getting very sick, it seemed as if the only person that really cared was his son. His wife was more concerned with making money of his death. She should have cared that her husband was gone and that she'd never see him again. I found it ironic thought that Ivan did not live his life with "the end in mind" but that he wore a necklace that reminded him to do just that.

I really really enjoyed this piece of literature. This might be why I chose to write my paper on it! :-) Anyhow, I think the story was sad, inspirational, disturbing, frustrating, ect, ect. There are so many feeling that this story evokes because there are so many aspects to it. Poor Gregor, the bread earner for his family and a good and supporting brother, is mysteriously transformed into a giant nasty cockroach. As if this was not bad enough, everyone in his life slowly learns to hate him. He doesn't want to be a bug, but he is trying to deal with this as best he can. His sister starts off seeming like a kinda and compassionate human being, but soon she shows her true colors and reveals that she doesn't care as much as we thought. Gregor is selfless and kind right up until the moment of his death. He is more worried about being a hassle to his family that he is concerned with is own well being. Its quite sad to see him being so concerned with them, but they hate him so much that they would rather see him dead.

This sad story actually reminds me a lot of my family. I do so much for my mom, constantly helping her out with anything she asks, often driving home from college to house sit and take care of her 30+ animals so she can go away for the weekend with her boyfriend. I once spent my whole Christmas break by helping her watch a new litte of puppies that had just been born. She was worried becaues the mother has sat on one of the puppies and killed it. As a result, I was supposed to watch them round the clock. In exchange, she was going to split the profits with me for what she sold them for. Instead, she used 100% of the money from puppy sales to buy my brother a 2003 Chevy Avalanche. He uses this car to commute! When I asked if she would help me buy a CHEAP truck so that I could haul my horses to and from college, she scoffed at me and called me a spoiled brat. Our relationship is great as long as I do all the giving with no asking. Gregor's family loved him when he did all the giving and never asked anything of his family. Once he needed his family's help, they hated him and turned their back on him. Its kinda sickening!

In this story, the Ancient Mariner was an adaptation of the "Wandering Jew" motif. The wandering Jew was a figure from ancient biblical times that was said to have been cursed to walk the earth and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ because he was bad and hurried Jesus while he was carrying the cross. The Mariner is a twisted version of the wandering jew because he was not preaching about Christianity. Instead, the Jew preached about Nature Gods, which could be viewed as pagan gods. The Mariner was an old scary looking man who had been sentenced to this punishment for killing and Albatross who was flying above the ship. The poor bird was just minding his own business and for no good reason, the Mariner shot him down out of the sky. I think that this was unkind of the Mariner. I am glad that the Mariner was not able to just get off for this crime without a fair punishment. I wish that there really was a nature god that looked over all the animals. Hunters who hunt animals soley for sport should be punished like the Mariner was. I would love it if every hunter had to carry around deer horns on their head for killing helpless deer. It makes me quite ill to think of sensless hunting. I dont mind killing for food or clothing, but not just for fun.

I liked this story, but I did not enjoy the style in which it was written. The story was funny to me because the girl became so upset after her hair was cut off. I understand that many girls value their hair as a prized asset to their beauty, but the girl only had one lock of hair cut off. I am sure that with some creative styling, she could disguise this missing lock without any problem. It was even more amusing that she wanted the lock of hair returned to her, as if it would do any good to replace the hair that was missing. I am pretty sure that this story was written before the time of enzymatic protein glue used for extensions. So, this girl would not be able to really do anything with the lock. I think she wanted it just so that he would not be able to keep it.

This is a classic piece of literature by Jonathan Swift that is discussing a plan of action for combatting Ireland's famine problem. In the story, Swift makes a disgusting proposition to end the hunger problem by suggesting that the people of Ireland should eat children. Even more than that, he actually proposes the idea of poor people making money by "farming" babies to sell for money.

This plan for action is appauling and disturbing. If swift were to have live in modern times and made that suggestion, he would have surely been arrested or persecuted quite heavily by members of relgious groups. Today, with the great debate over abortion and a womans rights to choose, this suggestion would not be taken lightly. Many people feel that a baby, from the moment of conception, is a human being with rights, feeling, emotions, and a soul. To kill this living being would be no less than murder. Swift's proposal can not be considered to be anything less than a murderous genocide of the Irish infant population. It would be quite bad if families actually did purposefully bear children in order to raise them up for sale. I understand that this peice is supposed to be a satire, but I do feel that Swift went a bit too far. His words might be taken as serious by some, and following such advice too closely will lead to nothing but trouble.