Kaci Alderson's Reading Blog

 November 16, 2022 Wow, the last post. And for my last post, we're going to be talking about something I didn't enjoy that much : Hamlet . Hate on me all you want, but Hamlet  rubbed me the wrong way and made me reconsider my view of Shakespeare. Now, I have always loved Shakespeare's sonnets. I memorized "Sonnet 18" in high school and recited it for my final project. I will even go as far as to say that Shakespeare is the best poet of all time for his sonnets alone. Even though I love his sonnets and have much respect for him in that regard, Shakespeare's dramas are not my favorites.  Hamlet was so sexist that I could hardly stomach to read it at times. I feel like the only role of the women in the play is to be subjected to misogyny, whether it be for plot purpose or humor. Ophelia's only role throughout seems to be for her to be the subject of sexist jokes. She also meets an untimely demise where she drowns. I thought this was morbid and quite unexpect...

November 9, 2022 Watching and reading A Raisin in the Sun was a blast from the past experience for me. Way back in my sophomore year of high school, we studied the written portion of A Raisin in the Sun and watched the film afterwards. Seeing it for a second time while remembering some, but not most of it, was refreshing. I remember in high school I hated studying it. (Sorry to Dr. Reed in advance for this next sentence). The reason I hated studying it was mainly attributed to the fact that I loathe reading, but it was also because I thought it was very boring. This time around, I had more respect for the reading and film and actually enjoyed the story. While reminiscing about learning about this in high school, I pulled up my old files and found two different assignments from this drama. In one I had to write a letter as if I was Beneatha Younger, and the second one I had to make a claim about Beneatha. Clearly I liked Beneatha's character in high school since I chose to do her ...

November 11, 2022 Our in-class discussion of different feminist short stories was very interesting, and led me to dig deeper into one of the stories we discussed. The story I liked the most was "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I enjoyed this story so much that I will be writing about it for my essay that in this course. So I don't spoil anything that is in my essay by analyzing the story, I am going to discuss why this story reminds me of the movie The Shining .  I am a horror movie geek and The Shining is obviously a classic. I didn't really draw this comparison the first time I read "The Yellow Wallpaper" in high school, but upon researching online, I found out that others think the same as I do.  The emphasis on insanity and mental health is present in both stories. In The Shining, Jack becomes one with the hotel and goes insane because of it. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator becomes one with the wallpaper and goes ins...

November 6, 2022 Studying drama was something fairly new for me, but I enjoyed learning about the differences between drama and fiction. I went to New York City this summer and saw a few musicals on Broadway which allowed me to gain a newfound respect for the art. I had previously seen Mean Girls on Broadway and this summer I had the opportunity to see Wicked and Six .  After reading "Trifles," I can confidently say that reading something that is meant to be performed is difficult. I loved all three musicals I saw and I believe if I read them, I would not have loved the pieces as much as I did. What really makes a great script is great acting. While "Trifles" was an interesting story to read, I know that if I saw it live that it would have come to life more than it did in my head. In terms of the drama "Trifles," I enjoyed the content. I think some interesting commentary was made about women in this play and I enjoyed how they were able to see everything...

November 1, 2022 The reading and our in-class discussion on literary theories gave me mixed emotions. When I first read the section, I was hoping to God that Dr. Reed didn't give us a quiz on the different theories because there were so many to remember. In addition to that, I was majorly confused which theory was which and they all seemed to blend together. Even though I was confused when I read, the in-class discussion cleared up the theories for me. A large aspect of the theories I noticed is how much the earliest theories omitted. For example, the early theories tended to focus strictly on what was being said rather than the situations surrounding the works. For example, political, social, world views, and economic interests were left out of consideration for several different theories. Also, most of the early theories didn't take into account who the author/poet was and their background. I believe that by omitting these details, many of the early theorists could not gain a...

 October 27, 2022 Our in class viewing of Rear Window  seemed like it would be the most boring thing ever, but it turned out to fully grab my attention. In my high school film class, we studied Alfred Hitchcock and how he was a master of suspense. At the beginning of the movie, I was confused what the suspense was supposed to be. It seemed like a love story, which didn't seem on par with what Hitchcock tried to accomplish in his films. Now at the midpoint of the movie, I can see why he gained that title. The suspense that Hitchcock builds in the murder case is phenomenal. He seems like he sat down and figured out every single detail that would make the viewer on the edge of their seat. I also appreciated how he is able to build that suspense with one singular setting the entire movie. If someone explained that the whole movie was set in the same apartment prior to watching this film, I would have been like "no way am I going to sit through that." Hitchcock really covered ...

October 25, 2022 After our class discussion of thesis statements, I decided to go back and evaluate thesis statements that I have written in various classes. In high school, I remember learning about thesis statements as a very structured thing. My teachers were very strict on having the same formula for each one. Part of that was because of the short time allotted for standardized testing, but the other part was because it was the easy way. Looking back at my old thesis statements, they were all painfully similar. Here are a couple of examples from my high school essays : "Some people may believe that Paine’s rose-colored glasses look at the United States still holds true today, however, there are still injustices that require citizen intervention towards the government and society and the United States today is very much split rather than in unison; therefore, Paine’s characterization of America does not hold true in modern society." "Some people may believe that more ...

October 24, 2022 For today's class, the stories we read were a...rollercoaster to say the least. All bases were covered in terms of theme with each story presenting its own twist. The stories include "Hills Like White Elephants," "A Rose For Emily," "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket," and "Wildwood." I read "Hills Like White Elephants" in high school and was surprised that I remembered every detail of the story. It is a clever story about pregnancy and abortion. The attractiveness about the "hills" and then sudden unattractiveness represents keeping the baby versus having an abortion. The American does not want the girl to have the baby and asserts his masculine dominance over her to make her see the "white hills" as a non-possibility. Even though I was annoyed with the American man in this story, I really enjoyed reading it again. It was just how I like it; short, sweet, and packed with symbolism and deeper ...

Friday, October 21st For today's reading, I took a look at a few short stories including "20/20," "A&P," "Araby," and "Cathedral". I read a couple of these in previous classes, but the short stories were just as great as the first time I read them. The two new ones I read exceeded my expectations and I thoroughly enjoyed reading all four selections. Brewer's "20/20" was short, sweet, and probably my favorite one. Because my mind always goes to the worst, I initially thought that Bill wanted to kill Ruthie at the end. After further analyzation, I was far from correct. I liked this short because once I realized what it was about and all of the subtle details that tied into the story. The line that mentioned going "halves on gas" tied into the "20/20" title. The half, or 50/50, is what people should do in a relationship. Because of that, Bill sees 20/20 vision on her and what a relationship should be. I also...

Wednesday, October 19th For today's reading, I looked at several poems in the Norton book including "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud", "We Real Cool," "Song of Myself," "Exchanging Hats," "My Papa's Waltz," Because I could not stop for Death," and "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner." Poetry is one of my favorite things to analyze, so reading these classic poems and analyzing their meaning  was fun. Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" was a good read, especially because of the imaginative imagery throughout. It was very easy to picture what Wordsworth was describing in my mind. The ABABCC rhyme scheme helped the flow and I enjoyed the form of the poem because it made the poem look clean. I had to look up what "jocund" meant (which it means cheerful), but besides that, I was easily able to understand every word and how it fit into the memory and imaginative theme. I also recognized the...