Topic Proposal for A Handmaid's Tale

     Is this book written from a feministic point of view? Atwood’s use of Biblical symbols throughout this novel sends a clear signal about the way women have been placed in subservient bondage in some religions around the world. Even in our country, the Bible has been misquoted and twisted by some cults to justify the oppression of women. I will research this topic in order to get a clear picture of gender roles in a true Biblical sense. My objective is to dispel the idea many people seem to have about Christianity and its role in the oppression of women in general.



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      I read books and see movies that paint this negative picture. Their Biblical references usually take verses completely out of context and twist the meaning into something completely opposite of what it says. No wonder there is such distane for Christianity and the Bible. There are a lot of false preachers out there who take advantage of the weak in the Name of Jesus. Thus, religion has been handed a bad reputation in most of our society. This research will, hopefully, re-enforce my beliefs, and will help me gain better understanding of why Atwood chose to use the Bible in such a way.

     I will answer my opening sentence and say I do not believe it is a feminist book. I do believe She sends us a clear message, in a broader sense, about what could realistically happen in our society if we continue the way we are going. We ignore the slow, subtle erosion of our freedoms in our country. One day, we could all wake up in a similar position as the characters found in “A Handmaid’s Tale.”

Religious Oppression of Women

Mid-Session Check-In Blog

March 26, 2011

Dear Laura,

I am enjoying the college experience after being out of school many years. I find education more challenging now than ever before. I have heard the saying, “the older you get, the harder it is to learn.” This seems to hold true for me. I have always been a pretty good writer, but the algebra and chemistry classes are a frustration. I really thought it would be the other way around being an electrician an all. This English class, in general, has brought out strengths and weaknesses in my writing. Most of my writing in the past has come right out of my head, so my challenge has been getting back into the practice of research and documentation. I have learned new technologies, such as blogging and making videos, which have brought me up-to-date with the world. This will all prove very useful in the future for technical writing and publishing journals.

Lord Byron

The reading content you have chosen has been very interesting to me. I am not one to place people in a high position just because they have published a book or play.  My favorite of the bunch so far is Tim O’Brien. His stories bring back memories of my younger days. His style of writing, for me, is of a high quality with a depth which provokes one to think rather than react. The poetry has also been intriguing. I had difficulty finding the same depth with the other authors. I do believe if I were to experience the “Sand Storm” in play form, or even in a public reading  by the author, that I would feel more emotional about it. Somehow, by just reading the script, it lacks the impact it might otherwise carry.

Literary analysis is different from normal research in that I have been able to incorporate my own view point into the text. Where a regular research paper contains straight forward facts, critical analysis demands personal insight along with the use of facts to support a point of view. I seem to do pretty well with this form of writing but see room for improvement. My goal is to become more succinct in my delivery and to become more comfortable and  competent in my MLA citations.

Sincerely,

Dan Wirt

An article about Non-Traditional Students 

The Sand Storm - A Play

     It is somewhat difficult for me to write my reaction to this play.  Call it spoiled if you will but I have become biased toward Tim O’Brien’s stories. Perhaps “The Sand Storm”  might have a greater impact on me if I were to see it performed in all of its sensual format. Something meaningful seems to have been lost in a mere reading of the script. My initial reaction was, this guy, Sean Huze, is just another angry whiner who needs to grow up. As I read the pages, I could feel anger directed at our government and society. At times this anger seemed like that of some little kid who didn’t get his way.

Iraq-war1: mediafreedominternational.org

     This tone carried through a great deal of the play. Most of the monologue involved graphic descriptions of dismembered bodies. There seemed to be little real emotion or human factor attached with these shocking scenes and I was left with the attitude that says, “yes, war is horrible, tell me something new.” My point is, the play, as a whole, seemed to be a little on the generic side for me. Some of the flavor of this play was a failed attempt to place Iraqi Freedom on the same level as the Vietnam war. There was and forever will be only one Vietnam. The armed forces before, and currently participating in the Middle East are volunteer forces.

     In the last few pages, Sean Huze does present us with moments of the emotional, introspective impact war can have on a man when Cpl Rodriguez tells us, “Maybe some of us are walking dead, soulless shells of the men we were” (Huze 17). For me though, even that line, as deep as it may sound, has a hollow ring to it. I did not come away from a reading of this play with anything more than I already know about war. People get mutilated and killed, do things they never thought they were capable of, and come back changed people. The real deep emotional lesson of being human did not come across clearly to me.

Here is the Schedule for: The Elephant Space Theater if you want to go see the play.

Response to "How to Tell a True War Story"

     I have no first hand war stories to relate. I was too young, just barely, to go to Viet Nam. Desert Storm happened after I left the Navy in 1986. I have, however, had the rare privilege of being in the company of close friends who have trusted me with painful, true tales from combat. This brings me to say, I have every respect for Mr. Tim O’Brien. Most people know that war is horrible. Because of the relationships I have had with veterans, I believe he writes these stories, not so much to tell us what we already know, but more as a way of softening the horrors he saw over there. It’s a little like blood-letting to cure a disease. Lines like, “ … how the sun seemed to gather around him and pick him up and lift him high into a tree … ” (O’Brien 80), are evidence of how we can soften a traumatic scene by changing it into something beautiful.

Provided by Microsoft

     The letter Rat Kiley wrote to his friend’s sister, I’m certain, was worlds different from the those she had received from her brother. It must have been very confusing to her and, quite possibly, put her in the frame of mind that this fellow was not all there. The letter was for Rat. A way of relieving the pain in an attempt to make sense of his Lemon’s death.

     War brings out the best and the worst in men. War is not fair, neither is life. O’Brien tells us, “ … war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love” (76). War and combat and all the things that go on during a battle are things which cannot be understood by someone who has not been there. Even those who have, come away with this confusion about what was real and what was imagined. The woman in the audience O’Brien speaks about, well-meaning and all, needs to understand that men who have lived these stories they tell are incapable of “putting it all behind.” We can only hope for healing.

                                                        Works Cited

O’Brien, Tim. “How to Tell a True War Story.” The Things They Carried. Boston:

     Haughton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Print.

True? War Stories...

Responding to a Poem

     Over the years, I haven’t given poetry much time or thought. Recently however, I experienced an emotional connection with a variety of such literature contained in a list of poems of witness. Two of these writings struck me especially deeply: “The Colonel,” by Carolyn Forche and Nicole Cooley’s “Compendium of Lost Objects.” Each of these engaged me emotionally. Each one has touched me in a different spot.
     Forche starts right out involving the reader from the very first line, “what you have heard is true” (1). When I read that, I felt a sense of being part of the story; as an intent listener, but invited to interject nods and sighs of understanding. Somewhere during the progression of the tale, I began to feel a bit sorry for the Colonel. This man seemed to have been driven a little off center in the head. That subtle insanity that allows one to control their environment through fear and creates a distance between a man and his family. “His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His/daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the/night” (Forche lines 2-4). They had a maid. What is his wife doing carrying a tray like a servant? His daughter has a nervous habit, and his son feels led to escape the home even though there are visitors this evening.


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     Nicole Cooley reminds me of the losses I've experienced in my personal life with her poem, “Compendium of Lost Objects.” At any moment in time, our lives can take a sharp turn. We can withstand the loss of childhood memorabilia and small, cool things such as “...the butterfly wing, the semiprecious stones,/the shard of mirror” (Cooley lines 1-2). Much different is the case when our entire community, livelihood and security are brought to complete waste, without warning, before our eyes. Her description of this devastating and life changing event reminds me of our frailty in this world.

     Both poems exemplify this human frailty in a different way. The witness in Nicole Cooley’s poem was a victim, through no fault of their own, of a natural disaster. The Colonel would seem to be victim to his own arrogance and pride.

Works Cited

Cooley, Nicole.  "Compendium of Lost Objects." The Country Between Us. 1978. Print

Forche, Carolyn.  "The Colonel." Breach. 2010. Print

    
Go to "The Modern Writer as Witness." A website by UNLV,
for more information about literature of witness.

The Necessity to Speak

In his essay, “The Necessity to Speak,” Sam Hamill presents us with familiar questions which have been asked by many great thinkers since the beginning of man. He goes to great lengths to demonstrate our plight here in this world of ours.



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I believe we could all become more involved in the lives of others but, from a spiritual stand point, I also have an understanding as to why we, as humans, act the way we do toward one another. Hamill talks about fear, knowledge, and wisdom in a way that brings me to the realization that his view point is very humanistic. “Knowledge is the loss of innocence,” is not a factual statement. The proper use of knowledge leads to wisdom and without it we would all still be hunting and gathering. His statement would carry a lot more weight with me if he had plainly said, “they fear the truth,” and left “knowledge” out of it. I applaud the emotion and outrage he exhibits in his writing, but I also take exception to his attack on our “armed forces.” Perhaps I see the necessity for the protection afforded by or men and women who put their lives on the line every day so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have in the “US of A.”

Hamill expresses the same feelings and pain we all have experienced in our lives; the same pain evident in “the poems of witness.” None, though, can console or offer a solution to the human condition. I am a realist. The day when all men and women on this planet come to one big kumbayah party where we all get along, there are no more wars, hunger, or tragic deaths or suffering, is the same day the human race will cease to exist.

A small offering of a solution can be found here.

Good Readers and Good Writers

Wirt 1

Daniel Wirt

Cline

ENG 102

26 January, 2011

Good Readers and Good Writers

     Nabokov tells us that a good reader is one who has imagination, memory, a

dictionary and artistic sense. I agree with his assessment that reading should be

more about discovering a new world rather than a fact finding mission.

Writing is an art even when the subject if of a technical nature. I do, however

read a novel differently than I read a text book. As Nabokov points out, the real

adventure lies in the exploration of a writers creation rather than picking

memorizing facts in a story.

     I use a dictionary from time to time. When I know the meaning of an unusual

word, it adds flavor to the piece that I might have otherwise passed over. It also

affords me the opportunity to build my vocabulary. I am not a fast reader, but I

believe myself to be a good reader in that I retainmaterial very well and I am

not afraid to read a piece a number of times in case I missed something.

Works cited

 Kabokov, Vladimir "Good Readers and Good Writers"

                                        

Relaxing With a Good Book

                   Image from MS Word Clip art File

Try this interesting link about  critical reading and writing

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