Special Entry #2 - "Becky"

This story was mainly about a woman names Becky who was a white woman who had two Negro sons. It first started with her having one negro son. Everyone in the town was wondering who had given it to her because she wouldn’t say. The white people were calling her a ‘insane white shameless wench’ and the black folk said it was a ‘low down nigger with no self-respect’. So they were through with her and everyone casted her out of the town having nothing to do with her. But a person named Lonnie Deacon went out under cover in the night to build a cabin for her between the railroad in the road. There were trains, fords, horse and mule drawn buggies that passed the house every day. But no one ever saw her. Some thought that she was dead. People started to throw out papers with prayers on them and food as they passed the house. Before long, she had another baby. Those two boys grew up and unlike their mother; they went into town and drifted from job to job. But they were a rough bunch of boys. “They’d beat and cut a man who meant nothing at all in mentioning that they lived along the road.” So no one even dared to ask if their mother was still alive. One time they shot up two men and left town saying “Godam the white folks; godam the niggers”. On Sunday, a congregation was coming home and were about to pass Becky’s house. Before the bend, the horses stopped. It seemed as if everybody had fear of that house. “We were just about to pass…Pines shout to Jesus!..The ground trembled as a ghost train rumbled by. The chimney fell into the cabin.” Barlow threw his Bible on the pile of bricks that lay upon the floor. They got away and when they reached town, the people came to get the true word of it…”Becky was the white woman who had two Negro sons. She’s dead; they’d be gone away. The pines whisper to Jesus. The Bible flaps its leaves with an aimless rustle on her mound.”
As you may agree, all texts should be interpreted. There can be many interpretations that can come out of something even when the author only intended there to be only one main interpretation. This text needs to be interpreted because if you were like me, you could read this twice maybe three times and still not get a clear interpretation. Especially with the phrase, “the pines whisper to Jesus”. A question that I will try to uncover is ‘what did the author intend for us to learn out of this text’?
This story deals a lot with racism. The whole town cast a woman out of their town because she had two black children. This story must have taken place while there were still slaves in America or sometime around then. This story might be saying something like ‘there is no good that can come out of racism.’ God never intended for there to be anger among different races. As you can see it pretty much destroyed this woman’s life.
One very interesting point was about the building of the cabin. In the second paragraph it said that the white and black folks built her cabin. While in the third paragraph it said that Lonnie Deacon stole out at night and built the cabin. At first I was confused on who built the cabin. I later realized that it they both built her cabin. Let me explain. The white and black folks built her cabin in an indirect way. They built it by rejecting her and making her an outcast, calling her a crazy wench. They were setting up the cabin being built. So they didn’t literally build it, they created it.
It also says that the people “prayed secretly to God who’d put His cross upon her and cast her out.” They wanted her to be cast out of the city. They didn’t accept her. But I think some still wanted to help her, but they didn’t want anybody to know that they felt that way. It kind of reminds me of first grade thinking. No one was brave enough to step out and help so they secretly prayed to God so no one would think wrong of them. They prayed that God would put His cross upon her meaning that God would protect her and keep her safe and save her.
Soon, it seemed like it became a ghost story because everyone thought she was dead and that she might haunt them and they had fear. In the text it says that she ‘might be a hant’. I wondered what hant meant so I looked it up and from what I found out it’s a person who haunts people. So the people had a fear that she might haunt them. And get this; they still didn’t know if she was dead or alive. This sets this up to be a decent moral. They rejected her and made her an outcast. I’m not going to say her life was miserable but the story sets it up that way, but it was their fault that she’s living that kind of lifestyle. Now they are taunted by their thoughts and dreams about her, still not knowing if she’s dead or alive. I think everyone can learn from this story in a different way. When we talked about this story in our small group, we each thought differently on the topic.

Symbolism

Probably the best sentence I can relate to in this reading is when it says, "One of the most frustrating experiences many people have (like me) with complex literary works and films arises from the sense that one thing means something else, yet that 'something else' can hardly be identified, captured, or named." When I read something I can pick up on some symbolism, but I know there's something else there sometimes. But it seems like I just can't get a hold of it and explain it. That is why I think talking and discussing it with a group or class like we always do is a great thing because one person might be able to pick that one thing up. And if no body can pick that one thing up, people can give their thoughts which might lead another person to pick up on something else, which in turn could pick that one thing up as a group effort. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like that happens every time in class.
I also like when the writer said, "Writers don't want symbols to obscure meaning. They want to use symbols to reach new meaning." I thought about it and I think I came to realize that if every author and writer only used signs and symbols that are already obvious and meant to point out one specific thing or plot, of course there would be a great point to it, but we wouldn't really have to think and therefore wouldn't really learn in a way. But if you use symbols, like in 'Waiting for Godot', there could be multitudes of meanings that the author had never even thought about. We could have sat all day in class and talked about the different meanings in 'Waiting for Godot'. Anyways I hope I made sense, and now I realize that symbolism is really important and good.

Professor Corrigan's Lecture and Movie

I liked Mr. Corrigan's lecture today. It correlated with watching the movie of 'Waiting for Godot' as well. He said some things that struck my thinking cap. He said something like 'there is no one way to interpret a text or play'. There can be mutliple meanings even though the writer only had one in mind, or in Beckett's case, none! I'm sure he had something in mind, he just won't share. He makes us think, which I like. So everyone has a different opinion on what the text or play should mean. God gave us all a different and unique mind. It was clearly obvious in Tuesday's class because there were interpretations coming from everywhere. I couldn't keep up. Mr. Corrigan also said, "Various interpretations help us become a better person/christian." I just liked that so I threw it in here.
One thing I couldn't really get by just reading the book is the attitudes the characters were displaying. This is where the movie came in and helped. For example, I didn't realize how much Pozzo was a jerk to Lucky. Which by the way, Lucky's name is pretty humerous because in his case, he is totally not lucky. While I was reading, Pozzo would say "stool" and "basket" etc... I had no idea what he was talking about. But when I watched the movie it all came out and it all made sense to me. I finally got some of the humerous jokes that they said that I didn't get out of just reading it. This is another example of how you can experience literature..through movies! Corrigan also talked about that if there is no stage direction or cues on whether its a sad mood or happy or someone being sarcastic, it's basically up to the reader or watcher to decide what's going on. Which is what I was doing with Pozzo.

Waiting for Godot: Discussion

In class, we talked about the themes to 'waiting for godot', and I was completely surprised by how many themes there are! We could have kept going on and on all day it seemed like. I wish I could say everyone one of them but there were so many I forgot! It's funny, a book about nothing can mean everything. I'm glad we had a class discussion because if we didn't, I would have read that book and been so confused on what it meant. That is a very helpful tool when trying to understand literature, to discuss. Because if your like me, my mind can only wrap around only a few ideas, but when you put multiple minds together, it opened my mind up so much. Especially when we didn't have much time to read it. This book almost needs to be read multiple times to understand something it seems like. One of the themes that caught me was about being married. And when he said that Estragon looked like estrogen, it made me laugh because not only was it funny, but I was thinking the same thing. There was a part in there where Estragon and Vlamdimir tried to depart from eachothers lives but Estragon kept coming back and Vladimir said it was because Estragon needed him to live and survive if I recall correctly.
The other theme that struck me was about religion. I couldn't tell if Beckett was trying to support christianity or degrade it saying that it was pointless. The reason I say he supported it was because I think it was Scott in class saying that the tree was like the cross. And Estragon and Vladimir were waiting for Godot to come, or you could say waiting for God. He then talked about the child that came and some stuff that he said and he related it to the bible. But the reason why I say he didn't support christianity is because when they were waiting for Godot, or God if you want to interpret it that way, Beckett might wanted to have expressed his thoughts on christianity saying their lives were basically pointless and they weren't getting anywhere in life and they were wasting their time waiting on believing he was coming, making him an atheist. But I doubt that's the case and I hope that's not the case so I'm sticking with the first point!

Waiting for Godot: Act I

For me, this text was kind of difficult for me to read. I don't know why. I mean the text was clear on what the people were doing but some of the lines in there didn't make any sense. And the meaning of some of the things are sometimes hazy in my little mind. Another thing I have a problem with is what kind of mood they are in. When it comes to them being angry at each other, it's pretty obvious. But this is a tragicomedy, and the part I have a problem with is the comedy part. I can't tell if they are serious or they're just using sarcasm or whatever. I can usually pick up stuff like that, but in this it's kind of hard. Maybe I get it but it's just not funny to me or it's way over my head because the wording is a little wierder than I'm used to. I'm not saying I didn't pick up anything funny. There was one part where Estragon, which I just typed as estrogen (Ha! Maybe that's a hilarious hidden mystery...) had an idea to hang themselves because of their complete boredom waiting on Godot. That must be extreme boredom. But then it goes on and explains what happens when a person in hung. And the thought of when the people pull up the dead who got hung, when all the people in the croud start shrieking...I pictured that happening and it was just funny.
A question I have right now is this...who is Godot? I started thinking about it and now I'm questioning my question. I wonder if I should be asking 'what' is Godot? So I started thinking critically on this, something of which I hardly ever do, and I wondered if Godot was maybe an idea or something. They could be waiting for something in their future or something that's not real. Maybe I thought over-critically on this one! I guess I'll find out when I get through reading this.

Dr. Horrible

O my! Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog was absolutely hilarious! It was genius. OK it might not have been that funny, but it was pretty stinkin funny. I loved how it was so serious and so funny at the time. I want to say it took me on an emotional rollercoaster. It makes me excited to read the Waiting for Godet. I read the first 10 pages of it though and it's kind of hard to read. If there was in kind of humor in those pages, I didn't catch them at all. But maybe class discussion will help me with that. But back to the sing along blog. Some of the scenes were really funny and serious. Like when Dr. Horrible actually turned evil and he went to the room where all the evil people had their meetings and what not. It was probably the most serious part of the movie and you were like, "No Dr. Horrible! Don't go!". But anyways at the head of the table they were sitting at was a horse! Not a person, but a horse. To me that was really funny. And also when Dr. Hammer was about to save the girl from being hit by a car. And to save her, he throws her to the side where a bunch of trash bags are. And there was so much more stuff that relates to seriousness and humorous at the same time but I can't think of them right now. I'd have to watch it over again. Which I will probably do. Tragicomedy's like this are probably my favorite to watch. I like watching intense movies and one with a great story line, but if you add humor to it, I think it makes it so much better! Probably because I love laughing. It's one of my hobbies. I also heard that laughing can help headaches. But I have no idea if that's true or not. I'd like to believe its true. But anyways! Ya! Can't wait for Waiting for Godet!

Lake Bonny Visit

I went to Lake Bonny Park for this assignment, and I stayed there for at least 50 minutes. It might have been a little more because I actually went there twice. It was pretty cool. Literally and figuratively. I went there towards the evening at like 5 to 6 and it was pretty cold outside. I love sitting out in the nature and just pondering upon whatever. It is so peaceful. And when I do this it's like I see God every time through nature. Hopefully you know what I mean by that. Especially when you see the stars and everything. It's awesome! So I was gonna write a poem, but I figured out that I'm not very good at writing and the only poetic line I could think of is, "the sun rained down onto the sparkling glass lake." I couldn't do much more than that sadly. Sitting down in one place for 20 minutes was very interesting. I had a squirl come up to me about three feet away. And I saw him jump up and wiggle his tail at the same time. Quite impressive. And I watched a bunch of ants take carry away food back to their home nest or whatever it's called. It made me think of Luke 12:24. It says, "Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!" If you haven't already noticed, I have loved reading and learning about nature in class. And I loved the poems by Mary Oliver. They are really good and I can understand them! Just some of my favorite quotes from them are...

-"I know a lot of fancy words. I tear them from my heart and my tongue. Then I pray."
-She just got done relaxing in nature basically and she said, "Then I go back to town, to my own house, my own life, which has now become brighter and simpler."
-"Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness....It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.
-Talking about praying.."It doesn't have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don't try to make them elaborate, this isn't a contest but the doorway into thanks." So pretty much the whole poem!