James Fazzio
December 8, 2008
Final Project Reflection

The text that my group chose to study as our final project is Flight Patterns. There are four major characters in the short story and we have four members in our group, so we each decided to take one character to focus on. The four of us made twitter accounts and put ourselves in our characters shoes and posted multiple twitters throughout the past few weeks. What we did was analyze each character and continue their lives based on how we thought they would continue on living.
The character that I chose to focus on is William. After reading the story, I thought about what William was like and the types of things that he would do. I posted several twitters based on how I perceive William and off of the things that he does. Since Grace, William, and Marie are all family, we made posts that correspond to each other.
Mostly everything that I posted on my twitter account has been about either Williams family or his work. Since he is so addicted to work, I posted a few things about his accomplishes at work and I made some posts that showed William having a bad day at work, since nobody has a good day at work everyday. Other posts consist of him enjoying time with Grace and Marie because they are the most significant figures in his life. A couple of posts are very sexual since in the short story, him and his wife are strongly sexually attracted to one another. Since his life mostly evolves around Marie, Grace and work, I believe that these are the types of things that William does from a day-to-day bases.
There are a few other posts that involve other situations that relate to the book. I remembered that William tells us about his attraction to other women and made a post that talked about his thoughts about her while he was on his business trip. Other posts involve his knowledge of the Declaration of Independence, his training for the triathlons that he participates in and other things that William would probably be doing.
The short story does not talk much about the history of William’s family; this is where my creativity comes in. I made events such as Grace’s birthday and a family movie night, things that would probably happen to any family, and incorporated them into their lives. This is where I had to use my judgment and analysis of the characters to post something that is meaningful to the story, and, at the same time, is not something that is totally abstract and off topic. Posting these twitters really helped me understand each character more thoroughly and caused me to analyze the story and what could happen next at a deeper level.
All in all I would say that this project was relatively easy and a good way to analyze literature. Getting started was really simple because I had the story fresh on my mind and I had a bunch of ideas for what I should write down. When my posts started to build up, I began running into problems. The main problem was remembering to go onto my twitter account and actually making the posts. When I did remember, there were a few other challenges that I had to overcome. I also had trouble thinking of new ideas that were not similar to the previous posts. I didn’t realize that it had been a couple of weeks since I had last read Flight Patterns. I decided it would be a good idea to reread the story in search of new ideas. My idea worked perfectly! Mostly what I got out of the story when I reread it were little things that William did often or well that I could make a post about. Overall I would have to say that this was a good way for me to get into the story and actually think about the type of person William really was.

twitter url:

http://twitter.com/jvfazzio

Antigone, rewrite

The beginning scene is Antigone trying to persuade her sister to help her bury their brother. This will preserve Polyneices honor among the dead men in the earth. To bury Polyneices is an illegal act and is punishable by death for anyone who participates in the burial. Ismene is far to scared to help Antigone with her act, and even tries to convince her not to do it. Antigone believes that she should honor her brother’s dead and give him a proper burial, nothing that Ismene says will persuade her otherwise.
Antigone loves her family very much and is willing to do a lot for them. She cares more about them than the law or her own honor. This is a trait that has pro’s and con’s. Like I already said, this is a good trait because she is there for her family when they are most in need. But this also means that she will be sacrificing herself and her honor for her dead brothers honor. She will be leaving Ismene in the world by herself, since all other family members are already dead. I think that Antigone should be thankful for what she has (i.e. her sister Ismene) and not just do this one courageous act and then be killed. She should treasure her life and be as caring to her living sister, rather than blowing all of the caring off on her dead brother, only to lead to her own death. Antigone following through with the burial shows that she is courageous and caring, but also is not aware of how she affects the people around her. If she were more aware she would realize that her doing this is ultimately going to lead to her death, leaving her sister with no body. A good family member would be there for her family, but Antigone is too blinded by the idea of honor to realize this.

Antigone is a young lady that lives in Thebes, an ancient city in Upper Egypt. Her two brothers made a mutual agreement and killed each other on the same day. Her father gouged both of his eyes out and her mother committed suicide. Antigone and her sister, Ismene, were the only two left in the family that haven’t mutilated themselves. She is planning to kill a man who she has fallen in love with but cannot pursue for unknown reasons. Her and her sister discuss the planned murder; Antigone states that she is not afraid to die while committing this murder. Ismene wants Antigone to keep the murder a secret so she at least has a chance of not being caught. But Antigone says that she will hate Ismene if she does not tell anyone and everyone of what Antigone has done. Ismene tries to talk some sense into her, but Antigone won’t have any of it because she has her mind set.
Though Antigone plans on killing a man simply because she cannot be with him, I don’t think that she is crazy. It seems to me that Antigone has found her first “true” love and since she can’t be with him, she doesn’t think life is worth living, for him either. Taking as extreme an action as she is planning to make seems pretty average for this family. The rest of her family preformed mutilation on themselves while Antigone is going to harm someone else. For this she is immature and selfish in that just because she can’t have the man she wants, she wants him dead. Antigone is taking her emotions to the extreme and doing something that is unjust and unfair for this man. If she cannot bear to be away from this man and feels that someone should die for it, she should kill herself. She should not be so greedy as to take someone else’s life. Antigone is very immature, emotional, unreasonable and selfish.

Bartleby, the Scrivener

If Bartleby had a facebook, it would be very simple and bland.  He wouldn't have very many friends, probably only his boss, Nipper, Turkey and Ginger Nut.  There would only be a few posted comments on his wall, most comments would be work related.  His favorites would consist of work and being solitary.  For his favorite quote, "I would prefer not to."  Bartleby's facebook would have all the new updates and he would know all the tricks there are to know, since facebook is basically his life. His last status entry would be 'good-bye for those who care, I'll be gone for a long, long time.'

First Fight. Then Fiddle.

Have you ever heard of the term, work before you play? It’s meaning is broad but it closely connects with First Fight. Then Fiddle. An example of work before you play would be that one must finish one’s essay before that person can go to hang out with their friends. The meaning behind both the poem and the saying have a much deeper meaning than just the literal meaning but clearly emphasize that you must prioritize activities and complete what needs to be done before you can do what you would like to do.
Throughout the entire poem, Brooks jumps around between fighting and fiddling but always maintains a clear message that you must work before you play. The final sentence in the poem, “Rise bloody, maybe not too late for having first to civilize a space wherein to play your violin with grace” has a deeper meaning than just what it literally means. Why is it that Brooks changes fiddle, which he uses throughout the entire poem, to violin at the end? This question must be analyzed a little bit before answering it. The first seven lines are dedicated to playing music while lines eight to twelve focus on fighting which is odd since the title encourages that you must fight first, I will discuss this in detail later. This is where the last sentence in the poem comes in. It speaks of peaceful times where you can play music and not worry about fighting. Violin is used rather than fiddle because violin sounds very close to violence. This brings the poem full circle, first talking about fiddling, then fighting, followed by fiddling again and finally a reference to violence, which symbolizes fighting.
There are many words and phrases within the first seven lines where Brooks closely relates the fighting lines in the fiddling lines. For instance, bow and silks to arms and armor, ‘with hurting love’ to ‘carry hate in front of you’, ‘the music that they wrote’ to ‘be deaf to music’. These are only a few relations that I noted, but there are several more. In connecting these antonyms or puns the way that Brooks does, he makes the poem flow better as well as scattering messages in areas where you wouldn’t expect them. With hidden messages throughout the poem and by using polar opposites gives the poem a little bit of a kick and really brings everything together.
Brooks is using certain words in the music section that strongly describe war and fighting. Simply skimming over the poem you will not realize this, but after analyzing and looking words up, it is pretty clear that some words in the first seven lines were meant to describe both music and war. Muzzle is used on the second line, it has many meanings, but for some reason the first thing that comes to mind is the muzzle of a gun, the open end or barrel of the fire arm. This is odd that he would use a word that has a potential meaning of being a part of a gun. It is interesting that the way Brook describes playing the fiddle sounds a lot like someone using a bow and arrow. It almost seems like he could be referring to this in the first seven lines. The sentence “Devise no salt, no hempen thing for the dear instrument to bear” sounds like a sentence talking about fighting. It seems that salt represents blood and the instrument being used is a bow (as in bow and arrow). Brooks also says bow on line seven, right before he changes the topic from fiddling to fighting. It could be that Brooks is changing from music to fighting on the fifth line rather than the seventh, but he is being very discrete about it.
Lines eight to twelve seem pretty straightforward in that Brooks is describing war, violence and fighting. In these few lines, Brooks makes several references to ‘work before you play.’ The sentence on lines nine and ten states, “Carry hate in front of you and harmony behind.” When you are waging war and fighting for what you love, you must fight with all of your heart before you can become peaceful and fiddle. In this case you must “carry hate” in order to win the battle which will ultimately bring harmony and peace. Lines eleven and twelve enforce the work before you play statement as well just on a literal level. The thirteenth line, “…having first to civilize a space…” really emphasizes the saying, ‘work before you play,’ because it says straight up that you must first work to find a place to play your instrument. You must put the things that you want and love behind you while you are carrying out your work and/or responsibilities. Once you have accomplished your goal, then and only then, may you become civil again and ‘play’ or ‘fiddle’.
There are many cryptic entities within this poem that you will not find glancing over the poem once or twice. To fully understand Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem First Fight. Then Fiddle. the reader must reflect upon this poem and what each line truly means to say. Many times Brooks will play with words to give certain sentences multiple meanings. There is much more to this poem than just a literal meaning. There is one clear message that the poet is giving us. You must work before you can play, or in Gwendolyn Brooks’ terms, first fight, then fiddle.

Response to Pound

The two lines that Ezra Pound has named In a Station of the Metro, is most certainly a poem. This poem contains: line, stanza, rhythm, rhyme, meter, imagery, and symbolism. There is line expressed through rhyme and ambiguity. Stanza is also apparent in this poem because there are two or more lines, it is regular and rhymes.  There is rhythm to these few words so that also emphasizes the fact that it is a poem. This poem shows meter, the first line is an Anapest and the second line is an Iamb. Simply the title and the two lines provoke many images and much symbolism. Without giving extra thought, I get images of a train station, faces in a crowd, and of a tree with thick branches. Special consideration must be given to the final word "bough" and to the context of where the poem is taking place. A bough is the main or very large branch on a tree. It, however, is not the base and it is also not the end of the tree. The people at the metro station do not live there but rather are on a journey to their respective destinations (work, home, friends, etc.). Just like the bough, they are neither at the beginning nor at the end. They are commuting through this station which itself is representative of life. The station is like a checkpoint for the path of the metro, where people can safely get on or off the path of life which is the train. Some people get off the train and continue along this branch of life. In a Station of the Metro is a poem, as you can see through: line, stanza, rhythm, rhyme, meter, imagery, and symbolism.

Pictues for "White"

   

White

I chose to blog about Frost's "Design" poem. There were a few images that really stuck out to me; the white spider, white moth and the white heal-all. The most subtle object in the poem would have to be the spider. Frost really emphasizes the spiders location, color and stature. The image of the spider recurs in the poem. At first the spider is holding the moth on the heal-all. By the end of the poem, the spider is kindred with the moth because it has eaten the moth.

I'm not sure exactly what the interpretation of this poem is, but I do have some ideas. I notice that all of the images I noted are white. Robert asks at the end of the poem, "What brought the kindred spider to that height,"(line 11) referring to the flower that was high off the ground, and "Then steered the white moth thither in the night?"(Line 12) This is odd that a white spider would catch a white moth on a white flower. Line 6 makes a reference to the ingredients of a witch's broth. This may mean that the fact that the three white images coming together as they did in the poem could be a sign of witchcraft. It could also have a greater meaning that I might be missing.

In terms of the moth, this poem is about death and in terms of the spider it is simply a morning meal. The poet jumps around these two perspectives throughout the poem, so I can't be sure as to what the poem is emphasizing. This poem could be stressing the fact that the three white objects coming together has a greater meaning, it could be a poem about death, it could be a poem about triumph, or it could have many meanings depending on what perspective you are looking at.

20 out of 21 run

I've been in Davis since August 24th running with the cross country team. It is a large step up from the training that I was doing in high school. We run twenty out of twenty-one days and we train hard! During high school I was running an average of forty miles a week, only training five days out of the week. Now I train on average sixty miles a week and run six to seven times a week. This is the most intense work I've ever done in my life and to have only one day off every three weeks is almost suicide! I don't know how I've managed to maintain health and endurance to continue doing what I'm doing, but I have managed. Everyday I push my body to its limits and I know that I am becoming stronger and faster because of this. I wish there was more off time but I know that if I continue training with the best, eventually I will become the best. Everyday is a challenge to continue on, but as long as I stay positive and focused, I know that I will eventually turn into the runner that I want to be.

The way I describe my running life makes you wonder why I would put myself through so much discomfort. The reason is that I love running, I love competing, and most of all, I love winning. However winning is not everything. I really enjoy my sport and all the people that I have met while doing it. It has become a way of life for me.