Name all the Animals III

We finished Name all the Animals over the weekend and are supposed to report on it. My report is on the characters, namely Alison, Roy and Terri. The author(and main character) makes the characters very realistic since they are real people and all the things they said were said in real life, giving them a very down to earth feel. They might jave been real, but I didn't really like them.
Alison, who is the main character, I found annoyingly non-productive. She never really grew as a character, simply going from normal to depressed to normal again. She was also horny as hell which I found somewhat uncomfortable. She didn't really do anything for me.
    Roy, who is dead, is a complicated character because you never really get to know him. He lives only in her memories and those memories are usually about good times, so he strikes you as a good guy. I'm sure he was a good guy, but it was odd having a character that you never heard anything bad about. 
   Terri, Alison's girlfriend was a main character, but you didn't really see into her head. Most of the scenes with her were riddled with Alison's insecurities. She isn't very insecure like most girls her age and she feels very new age to me(not that that's a bad thing). I found myself being disappointed with her when she got a new girlfriend out of the blue like she did, though. All in all, I wasn't a huge fan of the characters but I didn't hate them either.

Name all the Animals II

We were asked to be specific in this post, to write about the writing instead of the plot. Well, I like the writing, it's very personalized and not as sad as The Bell Jar. She uses a lot of details for her scenes and she really describes everything, which seems impossible, since it was years ago. She also uses pretty vivid images to descibe how she's feeling or how Roy is feeling. The way she wrote about Roy, like he was still alive, yet not, was interesting and I liked it a lot.

Name all the Animals

     So, this isn't an awful book, but I'm not loving it either. Part of it's my fault, I'm sick of sad stories, but I don't really enjoy memoirs all that much. The character is annoying and her family is even worse. I also ruined the book for myself by reading the author interview and realizing that(spoiler alert!) she falls in love with a woman. When ever a female character entered the story I was wondering if it would be her. I was also disgusted with her when she has sex in a nun's room. What is she thinking?
     It is kind of interesting in that it takes place in Rochester and I know all the land marks she mentions. It gives an interesting account of Mercy life, one I'll never be able to experience myself but will always wonder about.
    All in all, it's not a bad book but I don't really like it.

Sylvia Plath's Poetry

The swarm- I don't really understand her poetry, it's too deep for me, but this one was about people in the country that shoot thing. It's written in lines of four--quartets?--and had a few fragmented line brakes. The swarm is referring to a swarm of bees that get higher and higher and eventually get shot down by the gray faced men.
Resolve-this poem is all about images, cats and roses bushes and sneering winds. It had a few one word lines and funky line brakes that probably mean something. I liked it better than The swarm because it was short and simple. I didn't understand what she was resolved about, but maybe it was to live.
Years-this poem, as far as I can tell, is about how she's tired of life. She mentions that she never wanted eternity, and that God isn't high on her favorite people list.
Stillborn-I actually liked this one, it's about how poems are similar to stillborn baby's. I got the comparison, and appreciated that I didn't feel stupid reading it. It was also a sad poem, surprise, surprise, but it wasn't all weepy. 

The Bell Jar

We are now reading The Bell Jar by Silvia Plath fro Mr. Craddock. Personally I don't like it at all. I realize that she's depressed, that she's going crazy, that she's going to kill herself, but really, she can stop whining already. It's all, this sucks, that sucks, woe is me. Suck it up!
   I also don't really enjoy this writing style. I can't wait to be finished with it.

Unsettling America-three poems

Three poems from this book were read today with a substitute teacher. Before I report my analogize of these works, first I'd like to mention that the substitute thought we were stupid and it kind of ruined the experience for me.
Moving on...The first poem was mnemonic by Li-Young Lee. I enjoyed it because I understood it, unlike most poems. It was basically about a girl's memories of her father, both good and bad.
The second poem was Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez. This one I connected with because, first, I also run when I'm upset, and two, it reminds me of one of my favorite songs, Easier to Run by Linkin Park. I think most of the symbloizem of that poem went over my head though.
The third poem was Improvisation for Piano by Michael S. Weaver which just annoyed me, for mutable reasons. First, he's all scared about his son going out in the world cause he's no naive...well you should have taught him better! Duh! Second, he kills himself at the end(I think), hows that going to help your son, huh? Third, I didn't get the title, which just made me feel stupid.
The fourth  poem was English-Speaking Persons Will Find Translations by Micheal S. Glaser, which I liked a lot. For one thing, it was simple language, for another it made sense. It was sad, but moving. Three thumbs up for that one. I would have perfered for Ms. Gamzon to teach it, because the sub just kind of said "where is he?" and stupid questions like that, Gamzon would have explained the content a little deeper.

Betsy Brown III

   Again, I'll be discussing Betsy Brown. I finished it and it wasn't really that bad. You grew to like the character a little more, though you did want to slap her mother. Her mother, Jane, was quite foolish in the last part of the book. She leaves her house and children to go who knows where and leaves them a mess. A woman named Carrie comes to take her place, and she was a much less selfish character than Jane. The children loved her and when Jane came back she acted all high and mighty towards Carrie, even though she's the one that left in the first place.
   Betsy did seem more mature at the end, though all the woman talks went right over her head. The book ended on somewhat of a sad note when Carrie goes to jail, but it had a thread of hope in it too. All in all, it wasn't a book I'd choose for myself but I don't think it was a waste of time to read it.