True West Blog

The Curse of Ancestry

True West begins by showing the curse of family. I think Austin is the one cursed with taking care of his family. Austin tried to escape his family by moving up North, but he ends up back to take care of his mother’s house while she is away. While there, he is cursed by trying to take care of his bother Lee.  Lee is the failure: the thief, the drifter, the outcast. Austin is well manicured and proper, whereas Lee is a slovenly mess. Austin seems at first to be the one who got away, the brother who has survived the devastation of his family and somehow moved on to a sense of prosperity and release. Lee is at first the mirror image of his father, a drunk without a home, a man without direction. He is the aimless hero of Western myth: an outlaw who lives by his own code of morality. Towards the end of the play Austin begins to turn into his brother Lee. He can’t get away from the family curse.

Toaster scene

This play reminds me of the movie Holes both have the curse of ancestry in them. In the movie Holes Stanley’s family have bad luck and always blame it on their no good dirty rotten pig stealing great-great-grandfather.

 Also the movie is like the play because it is based out in the desert. The curse of the family is well represented in True West and in the movie Holes. Each person is born into a family and as such takes on the burdens of the generations preceding him or her, and you can’t help the family you are born into.

John Updike

John Updike Blog

How did John Updike’s life influence him in his writings?

John Updike was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and spent his first years in nearby Shillington, a small town where his father was a high school teacher. An only child, Updike and his parents shared a house with his grandparents for much of his childhood. At age 13 his family moved from Shillington to Plowville. In an interview John tells about the move and how it affected his life. Also he tells about how commuting back and forth to school with his father influenced him in some of his writings. “I continued to go to the same school with my father. I became a commuter. He and I became joint commuters and in a way I saw a lot more of my father than most boys, American boys do, so that was good. He and I went back and forth together and had adventures. I have written about this in a number of places but a novel called The Centaur is my main monument to those days with my father, struggling for the dollar and cars to keep breaking down and the snow storms to keep coming under your wheels. But, it was beautiful because I saw what it was like to be an American man. I saw that it's a struggle, not easy to be an American man (http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/upd0int-1).”

 Another thing that John said influenced him in his mother. “My mother had dreams of being a writer, and I used to see her type in the front room. The front room is also where I would go when I was sick, so I would sit there and watch her. Clearly she was making a heroic effort, and the things would go off in brown envelopes to New York or Philadelphia even, which had the [Saturday Evening] Post in those years, and they would come back. And so, the notion of it being something that was worth trying and could, indeed, be done with a little postage and effort stuck in my head. But my real art interest -- my real love -- was for visual art, and that was what I was better at. It was considered at first. My mother saw that I got drawing lessons and painting lessons. I took what art the high school offered. I went to Harvard still thinking of myself as some kind of potential cartoonist, and I got on the Harvard Lampoon as a cartoonist actually, not as a writer, but the writing maybe was more my cup of tea. There were some very gifted cartoonists over at the Lampoon. You wouldn't expect to find too many at Harvard, but actually they were quite good -- about three of them. And, I saw that maybe there was a ceiling to my cartooning ability, but I didn't sense the same ceiling for the writing because I had hardly given it a try. By the time I got out of Harvard I think I was determined or pretty much resolved to becoming a writer if I could(http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/upd0int-2).”

John’s marriage and divorce is said to have been a big influence for his story “Separating”. There are many similarities between Richard Maple's and John Updike's first marriage. The Maples reside outside of Boston and have four children whose ages and genders match those of Updike's own children with his first wife - the eldest daughter, the older son, younger son and then youngest girl. Details of the Maple children's lives are also like those of Updike's own children. Elizabeth Updike, for example, studied abroad in England. These are just a few of the many similarities found throughout the story that are similar to John Updike’s life. I believe he used his writings to express his emotions about what he was going through.

William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor blog

Southern Gothic

When I learned this story was Southern Gothic I became interested in learning more about it. I liked how the writers incorporated the southern culture with morbid and grotesque things. After I learned that A Rose for Emily was a Southern Gothic I read it again and saw many things that jumped out at me that were very southern and gothic. In A Rose for Emily the story starts off by saying “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house”. This first sentence shows that this story is Southern Gothic. It shows that is gothic by saying “When Miss Emily died”. Also it shows it is southern by saying “the whole town went to her funeral, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of the house”. This shows that this town is small and rural which is how most southern towns are. Also it shows that it is southern because the women only went because they wanted to see the inside of Miss Emily’s house. Another example of gothic I found is when Emily’s father died she acted like it didn’t happen. When everyone came to give their condolences Emily met them at the door with no trace of grief on her face. Finally after three days of the minister and doctor trying to persuade her to dispose of the body Emily finally gave in and let them bury him. My favorite part of the story, beside the end, was when Emily went to the druggist and asked for some poison. To me this part of the story starts to show Emily’s creepy ways and leads up to the ending. The ending shows the obvious reason why the story is gothic. They find Homer Barron lying in the bed dead and had been dead for a long time. The creepiest part to me is when they find a gray hair laying beside him.

T.S. Eliot

T.S. Eliot

Who was T.S. Eliot and what was he known for?

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in Missouri on September 26, 1888. He lived in St. Louis during the first eighteen years of his life and attended Harvard University. In 1910, he left the United States for the Sorbonne, having earned both undergraduate and masters degrees and having contributed several poems to the Harvard Advocate. After a year in Paris, he returned to Harvard to pursue a doctorate in philosophy, but returned to Europe and settled in England in 1914. The following year, he married Vivienne Haigh-Wood and began working in London, first as a teacher, and later for Lloyd's Bank. It was in London that Eliot came under the influence of his contemporary Ezra Pound, who recognized his poetic genius at once, and assisted in the publication of his work in a number of magazines, most notably "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in Poetry in 1915. His first book of poems, Prufrock and Other Observations, was published in 1917 (http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/18).

Eliot also wrote The Waste Land, one of the most influential and debated poems of the century. In The Waste Land, the weakening of society is compared with a shattered wasteland. Later in his life Eliot wrote mostly about religion. In After Strange Gods (1934) Eliot took the literary ideas of his "Tradition and the Individual Talent" and demonstrated how they could apply to society. He also declared that too many freethinking Jews would damage the kind of Christian culture he proposed. This work, along with The Idea of a Christian Society (1939) and Notes toward a Definition of Culture (1948), indicated Eliot's stand against the pluralistic society of most Western democracies. Ash Wednesday (1930) is the title of this six-part poem that refers to the beginning of Lent. The poem focuses on a person who is isolated from God and who sets out to find Him. The poem shows the prayer and progress of this person. The tone of sincerity and passionate yearning, of anxiety and some joy, was new for Eliot (http://www.notablebiographies.com/Du-Fi/Eliot-T-S.html). People had many good things to say about Eliot. “When T.S. Eliot died”, wrote Robert Giroux, “the world became a lesser place.” Certainly the most imposing poet of his time, Eliot was revered by Igor Stravinsky “not only as a great sorcerer of words but as the very key keeper of language When T. S. Eliot died, wrote Robert Giroux, "the world became a lesser place." Certainly the most imposing poet of his time, Eliot was revered by Igor Stravinsky "not only as a great sorcerer of words but as the very key keeper of the language." For Alfred Kazin he was "the mana known as 'T. S. Eliot,' the model poet of our time, the most cited poet and incarnation of literary correctness in the English-speaking world." Northrop Frye simply states: "A thorough knowledge of Eliot is compulsory for anyone interested in contemporary literature. Whether he is liked or disliked is of no importance, but he must be read." When T. S. Eliot died, wrote Robert Giroux, "the world became a lesser place." When T. S. Eliot died, wrote Robert Giroux, "the world became a lesser place." Certainly the most imposing poet of his time, Eliot was revered by Igor Stravinsky "not only as a great sorcerer of words but as the very key keeper of the language." For Alfred Kazin he was "the mana known as 'T. S. Eliot,' the model poet of our time, the most cited poet and incarnation of literary correctness in the English-speaking world." Northrop Frye simply states: "A thorough knowledge of Eliot is compulsory for anyone interested in contemporary literature. Whether he is liked or disliked is of no importance, but he must be read."When T. S. Eliot died, wrote Robert Giroux, "the world became a lesser place." Certainly the most imposing poet of his time, Eliot was revered by Igor Stravinsky "not only as a great sorcerer of words but as the very key keeper of the language." For Alfred Kazin he was "the mana known as 'T. S. Eliot,' the model poet of our time, the most cited poet and incarnation of literary correctness in the English-speaking world." Northrop Frye simply states: "A thorough knowledge of Eliot is compulsory for anyone interested in contemporary literature. Whether he is liked or disliked is of no importance, but he must be read."When T. S. Eliot died, wrote Robert Giroux, "the world became a lesser place." Certainly the most imposing poet of his time, Eliot was revered by Igor Stravinsky "not only as a great sorcerer of words but as the very key keeper of the language." For Alfred Kazin he was "the mana known as 'T. S. Eliot,' the model poet of our time, the most cited poet and incarnation of literary correctness in the English-speaking world." Northrop Frye simply states: "A thorough knowledge of Eliot is compulsory for anyone interested in contemporary literature. Whether he is liked or disliked is of no importance, but he must be read."When T. S. Eliot died, wrote Robert Giroux, "the world became a lesser place." Certainly the most imposing poet of his time, Eliot was revered by Igor Stravinsky "not only as a great sorcerer of words but as the very key keeper of the language." For Alfred Kazin he was "the mana known as 'T. S. Eliot,' the model poet of our time, the most cited poet and incarnation of literary correctness in the English-speaking world." Northrop Frye simply states: "A thorough knowledge of Eliot is compulsory for anyone interested in contemporary literature. Whether he is liked or disliked is of no importance, but he must be read."When T. S. Eliot died, wrote Robert Giroux, "the world became a lesser place." Certainly the most imposing poet of his time, Eliot was revered by Igor Stravinsky "not only as a great sorcerer of words but as the very key keeper of the language." For Alfred Kazin he was "the mana known as 'T. S. Eliot,' the model poet of our time, the most cited poet and incarnation of literary correctness in the English-speaking world." Northrop Frye simply states: "A thorough knowledge of Eliot is compulsory for anyone interested in contemporary literature. Whether he is liked or disliked is of no importance, but he must be read.".” For Alfred Kazin he was “the mana known as ‘T.S. Eliot,’ the model poet of our time, the most cited poet and incarnation of literary correctness in the English-speaking world.” (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/t-s-eliot.html)

When T. S. Eliot died, wrote Robert Giroux, "the world became a lesser place." Certainly the most imposing poet of his time, Eliot was revered by Igor Stravinsky "not only as a great sorcerer of words but as the very key keeper of the language." For Alfred Kazin he was "the mana known as 'T. S. Eliot,' the model poet of our time, the most cited poet and incarnation of literary correctness in the English-speaking world." Northrop Frye simply states: "A thorough knowledge of Eliot is compulsory for anyone interested in contemporary literature. Whether he is liked or disliked is of no importance, but he must be read." When T. S. Eliot died, wrote Robert Giroux, "the world became a lesser place." Certainly the most imposing poet of his time, Eliot was revered by Igor Stravinsky "not only as a great sorcerer of words but as the very key keeper of the language." For Alfred Kazin he was "the mana known as 'T. S. Eliot,' the model poet of our time, the most cited poet and incarnation of literary correctness in the English-speaking world." Northrop Frye simply states: "A thorough knowledge of Eliot is compulsory for anyone interested in contemporary literature. Whether he is liked or disliked is of no importance, but he must be read."
This is one of my favorite poems by T.S. Eliot.

Robert Frost

Robert Frost

Home Burial is one of my favorite Robert Frost poems that we discussed in class. I am not really a big fan of poems, but this poem stood out to me because it wasn’t like the rest, it tells a story. It doesn’t just rhyme and talk about nature. It tells of a real life struggle that many people have to go through. This is a dramatic poem—“dramatic” in that, like traditional drama; it presents a continuous scene and employs primarily dialogue rather than narrative or description( http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section4.rhtml).  The poem to me represents grief and how two people view grief. The wife’s grief infuses every part of her and does not wane with time. The wife can’t move on and everyday grieves the loss of her son. She sits at the top of the stairs and stares at the child’s grave every day. The husband, on the other hand, has accepted the death. He did grieve, but the outward indications of his grief were quite different from those of his wife. He threw himself into the horrible task of digging his child’s grave—into physical work. Both do not understand each other’s grieving process. To the wife, the act of burying the child was one of supreme indifference, while to him it must have been hard. The husband is also partially to blame. If he had any understanding of how to communicate to her, he would not leave everything unspoken. This displays a lack of empathy and a failure of communication. This is typical of men and women. Women outwardly show their emotions and become depressed or sick. Men try to cover up their emotions by going on with life like nothing happened.

This was a great poem that showed the struggles of losing a child, and how it can put a strain on marriage.

This video shows a couple in cousneling protarying the couple in Home Burial.

W.E.B DuBois

W.E.B DuBois

How were W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington different, and how did they change the black community?

Two great leaders of the black community in the late 19th and 20th century were W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. However, they sharply disagreed on strategies for black social and economic progress. Their opposing philosophies can be found in much of today's discussions over how to end class and racial injustice, what is the role of black leadership, and what do the 'haves' owe the 'have-nots' in the black community (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/etc/road.html).

By the 1890s Washington had become the most prominent black leader in America. In a speech he stated his conviction that blacks could best gain equality in America by improving their economic situation through education rather than by demanding equal rights. He preached a philosophy of self-help, racial solidarity and accommodation. He urged blacks to accept discrimination for the time being and concentrate on elevating themselves through hard work and material prosperity. He was sharply criticized by other black leaders—including W. E. B. DuBois, who would become Washington's great intellectual opponent—though many blacks and most whites supported his views. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B.  DuBois had many different ideas on racism. The intolerable racism that continued to oppress African-Americans led W.E.B. Du Bois to support change through agitation and protest. Du Bois's landmark work The Souls of Black Folk expressed the view of Washington would merely perpetuate oppression (http://www.americanwriters.org/writers/washington.asp). DuBois advocated political action and a civil rights agenda. He was one of the founders of the NAACP.

 In addition, he argued that social change could be accomplished by developing the small group of college-educated blacks he called "the Talented Tenth:" At the time, the Washington/DuBois dispute polarized African American leaders into two wings--the 'conservative' supporters of Washington and his 'radical' critics. The DuBois philosophy of agitation and protest for civil rights flowed directly into the Civil Rights movement which began to develop in the 1950's and exploded in the 1960's(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/etc/road.html). Both Washington and DuBois had great ideas on racism and how to handle it. They influenced the black community in many ways.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Old medicine vs. new medicine

What are some differences in treatments during Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s time and ours?

When I read “The Yellow Wallpaper” I learned about the treatment for postpartum depression in the 1900’s. It was treated by a popular form of rehabilitation called the rest cure, a regimen consisting of continuous rest and suppression of all thoughts of or actions toward a career (http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/gilman.html). When I read this I immediately thought this was crazy, and that it was opposite of present day. Postpartum depression is taken very seriously now; any signs of depression should be reported to the doctor immediately. The doctor will prescribe antidepressants and recommend being as social as possible.  I realized that during the 20^th century rest was the cure for almost everything, and a hundred years from now people will probably think some of our treatments were crazy.

In 1900, the three leading causes of death were pneumonia, tuberculosis (TB), and diarrhea and enteritis, which (together with diphtheria) caused one third of all deaths. Sir William Osler, known as "the father of modern medicine," appreciated the morbidity and mortality of pneumonia, describing it as the "captain of the men of death" in 1918, as it had overtaken tuberculosis as one of the leading causes of death in his time (http://www.news-medical.net/health/Pneumonia-History.aspx). There was no known cure for pneumonia until the mid 1900’s. Patients were told to get a lot of rest and usually died. Several developments in the mid 1900s improved the outcome for those with pneumonia. With the introduction of penicillin and other antibiotics, modern surgical techniques, and intensive care in the twentieth century, mortality from pneumonia dropped precipitously in the developed world (http://www.news-medical.net/health/Pneumonia-History.aspx). Today antibiotics are still used to treat bacterial pneumonia. Other medications are also used to help improve breathing and relieve symptoms in bacterial and viral pneumonia.  The second leading cause of death in the 1900’s was tuberculosis. In 1900, 194 of every 100,000 U.S. residents died from TB; most were residents of urban areas. In 1940 (before the introduction of antibiotic therapy), TB remained a leading cause of death, but the crude death rate had decreased to 46 per 100,000 persons. Those infected with tuberculosis were isolated from society and placed in sanatoriums. These self-contained communities became known as "waiting room[s] for death.”



This the abandoned tuberculosis sanitarium Waverly Hills in Kentucky



This shows how close they were put together because there were so many people with TB.

The emphasis on the cure was "Rest in Bed" in the open air on sleeping porches or in well-ventilated rooms. There were strict rules governing coughing in public, spitting on the floor and basically controlling any potential spray that came from the lungs, throat or mouth. Exercise was stressed as speeding up "…the end of many of those now dead from tuberculosis". The patients were instructed to never get out of breath, never exercise when the temperature is above 99.6º, never exercise if sputum was streaked, never run or walk fast, never get tired, and never attempt mountain climbing. The emphasis was placed on the individual and how he/she could facilitate their own cure by following the sanatorium rules. The Piedmont Sanatorium Rules and Information for Patients said, "If you expect to get well you must work for it" (http://www.faculty.virginia.edu/blueridgesanatorium/death.htm). Today in the United States, there are approximately 10 cases of TB per 100,000 people. However, rates vary dramatically by area of residence and socioeconomic status. It is usually treated by antibiotics, and you may need to stay at home or be admitted to a hospital for 2 - 4 weeks to avoid spreading the disease to others until you are no longer contagious.

Many things have changed over the years, and a lot of changes are sure to come in the future.

Emily Dickinson

What was Emily Dickinson’s writing style and how was it different?

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, and she died there on May 15, 1886. Most of the family belonged to the Congregational Church, though the poet herself never became a member. Dickinson had a strong secondary education and a year of college at South Hadley Female Seminary. She was far more educated than most other girls during her time. The poet was born in, and died in, a house called the Homestead (http://www.uta.edu/english/tim/poetry/ed/bio.html).

Homestead in 1800's

Dickinson Museum


Today Emily Dickinson is considered one of America’s most original poet’s. Only seven poems were published in her lifetime, but now eighteen hundred have now been published. Little known in her own lifetime, she was first publicized in almost mythic terms as a reclusive, eccentric, death-obsessed spinster who wrote in fits as the spirit moved her (Baym). Dickinson’s fame as a poet rests on the fact that she introduced new styles that were well ahead of her times; she used the elements of slant rhyme and assonance along with simple language to create a melodious effect in her poetry. Dickinson’s poetry is considered to encompass emotions and issues that transcend the barriers of time and are as relevant today as they were in her age. The manner in which she employed punctuations, capitalization and metaphors are aspects of her style that has inspired many poets (http://classicliterature.net/emily-dickinson/).  Her complex lyrics have a wide range of subjects: pain and joy, the relationship of self to nature, the intensely spiritual, and the intensely ordinary. Also her poems about death confront its grim reality with honesty, humor and curiosity.

Emily Dickinson’s life experiences had an intense impact on her writing style. Dickinson’s love poems have convinced biographers that she fell in love a number of times. Not only did love play a big part of her life, but also death. Within ten years Dickinson lost her father, mother, nephew, and one of her close friends. Her seclusion from the world and her poems about death could have been a response to her grief of these losses (Baym).

Baym, Nina, Wayne Franklin, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York [u.a.: Norton, 2012. Print.

This is one of my favorite Emily Dickinson poems :)