Extra Credit POST!

As a group we decided when we first started the blog to split up the work equally, like one person doing the blog and another doing the comment each week. We thought it would work great because the concept was so simple. We definitely thought that writing the blog together worked well but I don’t think we intended to get so busy with other stuff. We all definitely agree that his blog went well in the beginning but fell apart at the end because people forgot it was their turn to do the blog. To be honest I think we had a good idea of who was doing what, but if we could change something we would probably get ahold of each other to make sure we did our blog posts. That would be the only change to our group blogs. I think we as a group felt like we succeed with what we had said in our blog manifesto because we were trying to being comedic while writing and we definitely got that. I think for all of us it changed how we thought of what we were going to write because it had to be satirical attire. I think I had the most fun just writing the blog manifesto because it was what we were going to talk about this entire semester. But overall what we got from this blog was information about what our books were about. I feel that we learned information on things we didn’t learn about in class because it involved research and we all felt like we grasped the concept of what we had said in our blogs. 

                                                       This is Shane Winkelbauer

                                                       Two Thumbs Way UP !!!!!

De' Awakening mon ami

We are back ladies and gents. After a brief hiatus your favorite literary masterminds have returned and this week I, the ever enchanting Trevor Mashburn, will be tackling the complex and creole loaded story of The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

First off let's take a second and talk about the author for a minute. Kate Chopin was, no doubt, a very tough lady. Her life, especially her childhood, was by no means an easy one. We at TTWU believe that her rough upbringing also unhinged what later became her intriguing literary style. One word to describe Chopin is gutsy. One of her favorite story themes is feminism. In the modern climate this theme goes off without issue. However, this was a very touchy subject especially in the South where Chopin hailed from. I use the word touchy, but in all honesty trying to change the ways and traditions of the 19th century deep south could, and often did, get very messy and occasionally violent. So it definitely took brilliance on the part of Chopin to both clearly broadcast her message, and subtly place it in her story.

Now we enter the story itself. We are introduced to the Pontelliers featuring the nice but overly work oriented Leonce and his exasperatedly frustrated wife Edna. Edna and her unrest is the focus of the story and the plot line follows her various experiences that cause her eyes to open up to who she could be. An awakening if you would (thats where that comes from). The story is set in the French Quarter of Louisiana, and of course is filled with Creole people, and their fantastic food. Edna's two close friends are Adele, who is the epitome of what a stereotypical southern woman should be, and the untamed and passionate Mademoiselle Reisz. These two represent a sort of yin and yang of the internal battle going on inside of Edna. Adele is who Edna is supposed to be in that culture, and initially Edna believes this as well. Yet, as the story progresses Edna realizes that she hates many of the things Adele implores her to love. Reisz clearly has a much greater influence over Edna especially as the story progresses. The reason for this is simply passion. Edna's life is devoid of passion and she hates it. Her marriage is self proclaimed as passionless, and the man she has an affair with Robert is a very passionate individual. Edna spurns the normal expected lives of woman due to the lack of much freedom or fire. This is what Reisz brings to the table and it is through this that Edna begins to become a new more passionate woman.

            Should Huckleberry Finn be taught in today's classrooms? That is a question that Alvin Powell looked to solve when writing this article, Fight over Huck Finn continues: Ed School professor wages battle for Twain classic. Due to the repeated use of the 'N' word several teachers have pushed for the book to be removed from the curriculum and replaced by a more modern novel. Huckleberry Finn is an American icon of a novel, Mark Twain is regarded as one of the greatest writers of all times. One key individual is Jocelyn Chadwick, a professor at Harvard University, she is for keeping Huckleberry Finn in the classroom. She pushes that the only reason teachers or parents want the book removed from schools is, "is that parents and teachers who object to its inclusion in the curriculum sometimes view the text through a lens colored by their own experiences, or by their community's experiences, or by the strained present of race relations."

            This idea that the people objecting to the book are not thinking what is best for the children, but rather what would make them more comfortable. This article explains more into the debate, but in the end it comes down to the children. Should children be taught from the best possible source? or should we cater to what makes us comfortable and let the education fall to the wayside. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest novels in history. Students should not be prevented from learning from such a great piece, instead they should be striving to push the boundaries in search of an even greater novel.

 

This is David Akers

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What Was Dickens Thinking????

To start off, this book is hella dark. As we talked in class about what was happening in Hard Times, we see that not much is happening in the industrial city of Coketown. But seriously, who names a town COKETOWN. Anyways in class we had talked about themes of the book, which mostly related around darkness and despair. We can tell that Charles Dickens is great writer but I don’t really know what he was thinking when he wrote this book, but some thought he was just fed up with utilitarianism and political Economy.  This book literally takes us through a life of two people, a boy and girl, brother, sister and how they were raised through economical theory, which pretty much ruined their life. Charles Dickens wanted to prove to everyone that Utilitarianism is a load of garbage, especially when it tries to take over Judeo-Christian ideas, I don’t know what the hell these ideas are since I am a Catholic and we are the best. But it somehow ties into morality and how utilitarian thinkers tried to replace this with more statistical based explanations with their motto basically being “SCIENCE BITCH!” and here is poor old Charles Dickens saying “Whoa that’s not cool bro” and thus the creation of this story is made.

            Economists had different theories to go off of this and it’s pretty interesting to see what they have said. Take David Ricardo for example, he wanted people to know that they as economists didn’t want to tell people how to live their lives (Yeah because that makes a lot of sense based on these utilitarian thinkers), then you have economists like Harriet Martineau who say “Hell Yeah! Let’s tell these people how to live their lives (That’ll work out well). Then here comes once again good ole Charles Dickens who is the wise one of everyone and says “Hey screw both those ideals and let people be who they are without the use of math and crap” (My Homie right there). So thus like I stated earlier he wrote the novel Hard Times in order to get his own ideals and voice across to these thinkers and normal human beings in this awesome but screwed up world. With ideals in his head and a smartass mouth Dickens wrote probably one of the most depressing stories that I have never read and yes it really did get across to the people in a sense that it hit every key issue that was brought up during his time.

This is Shane Winkelbauer

Two Thumbs Way Up

It's all about heart

        Ah yes so we've reached the crucial juncture in any American literature class where we delve into the violent lunacy that is the brilliant works of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is the author who may be most commonly associated with being a possible sociopath. I cannot speak for how he was as a person, but seriously this guy writes some pretty dark, gruesome,and other wise disturbing things. It is very well written, but disturbing none the less. Slow painful murders, being buried alive, disembowelment, Poe covers all forms of violence in spectacular literary fashion. Usually overly violent stories would be thrown out as garbage, but Poe's brilliance as a writer refuses to let that happen in any of his works.

For example, one of Poe's most famous pieces is the short-story A Tell-Tale Heart. The story takes the place from the view of the narrator plotting to kill the old man he lives with. The odd part being the narrator admits that the old man has never wronged or insulted him in anyway. Not that if he had the consequent murder would then be acceptable, but at least there would be something relating to understanding from the reader. But no the only reason the narrator presents is the old man's "evil eye". This poor old soul has cataracts and this freaks the narrator out. This narrator claims that he still has his sanity and just suffers from something resembling nervousness, a big red flag. If you have to try and convince yourself that you are sane there's a good chance that you may not be all there in the head. So for seven days this guy opens the old man's door at night looking for this evil eye. He watches the old man while he sleeps, but remember he's not crazy. On the eight night the old man awakens and the narrator smothers him with the old man's bed. In classic Poe style the narrator dismembers him, and hides the body beneath the floor boards. Of course the old man screamed and so the police are called, and they come to investigate. Here is what makes this story a great piece of literature. Shortly before he kills the man the narrator claims to hear his heart beat. This of course is not entirely possible, but Poe uses this to illustrate the narrator's conscience. Usually a conscience is just the voice in your head that tells you right from wrong, but due to this characters lack of sanity he hallucinates and hears the beating of the old man's heart even after killing and storing the body. The more guilty the narrator feels the louder the sound gets until he finally rips up the floor and admits to the murder. The irony here is that the narrator convinces himself that the police present could also hear the noise and knew he was guilty. They could not in fact he was well on his way to getting away with this crime. This is how Poe makes this story great. Poe uses the narrator's possible insanity to show guilt in a way that most people would never exhibit. It is also different in that Poe tells the story from the view of the antagonist. This is a common tactic Poe uses and it works very well. In most stories the reader doesn't get this sort of detailed look inside the head of the bad guy. Poe does not always present his stories with a clear cut protagonist, but often uses an antagonist vs victim type display. This results in stories that are both intriguing and entertaining, and is not something most could. It is for this reason Poe has stood the test of time and why his overall violent style of writing is accepted as great works of literature. Many other writers, even in the modern day, have used this approach and it all began with Poe and his own style of brilliant darkness. I am still wondering where he would come up with stuff like this, but I digress. After all HIS beating heart was most likely in the right place.

This is Trevor Mashburn

With Two Thumbs Way Up

It's ALIVE!!!!......... well kind of

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, even we at Two Thumbs Way Up cannot doubt that this novel is without question a classic piece of literature. We know this and we haven't even finished it yet. That brings the focus to what makes this story a classic. Just because some random hippy with an internet blog uses the word classic in his homemade book review does not make a story a "classic". For the record a slew of positive critic ratings  also does not necessarily convey what we will call classic status(though it does help). A classic (as defined by the literately brilliant at Two Thumbs Way Up) is a story that truly stands the test of time for reasons other than the pure difficulty of reading it(I will never understand A Tale of Two Cities). Frankenstein exhibits this perfectly (its a blog arguing with me will get you nowhere). This story was first published in 1818 and it is still commonly taught in both high school and collegiate classrooms across the world in the modern day. Also the themes and motifs originally presented in this story are still used both in modern media and literature. The idea of Frankenstein's monster is used and reused almost to the point of over saturation (Disney has used it on multiple occasions). One of the key themes in Frankenstein is science, more specifically what happens when humans take science too far and where is the line separating moral experiments from immoral ones. We would all literally be flabbergasted(surprised) if you had not seen some sort of TV show, book or movies that have a plot related to this topic. This is why Frankenstein is truly a classic story AND many of its messages are well known and well used today. Few adults, and many kids, have not at least heard of Frankenstein in some capacity. This above all else is what makes this story a true literary classic, and this is why Frankenstein will be alive and kicking for many generations to come....... well kind of.

This is 

Trevor Mashburn

With 2 Thumbs Way Up                                                                

Blog Manifesto

Our goal is to provide entertaining satirical and critical analysis of 19^th century British American Literature. We want to critically go into depth and find what’s not been normally seen when reading. We want to draw in the reader, we want people to beg for more. Our mission is to have our overly critical satire be truly recognized for how great it is. We want to provide truly great insight for college students because we are literary geniuses. We are going to give you first person critical analysis on everything we read.  We want you to understand the absolute greatness of some of the greatest 19^th century writers known to mankind. Writers such as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and that one weird writer who wrote Frankenstein (we will learn about her later). The life of these writers are known throughout their stories and it will give you an insight of how these people lived in these certain types of societies. Societies back in the day of the 19^th century. By the end of this class you will feel so much more closer to these writers and their lives then you actually want to. So sit back and enjoy the ride.