The whole scene starting on page 286 right after Daddy Glen gets caught raping Bone by Anne got me thinking about something that I didn't really feel was relevant to our class discussions, but I did sit there and think about for quite a while. As soon as she was to run from Glen, Anne took virtually no time at all to almost forgive him for his actions. Now that is her own agenda (or problem in my opinion), but I started trying to relate that to my own personal experiences. The aspect which I started contemplating was was whether I could ever see myself forgiving someone regardless of how much I thought I loved them or not for doing something so horrible. I tried looking back on my past relationships and even friendships, and I can remember things that don't even rank in my mind as being 1% as horrible of an action that I did not forgive. Maybe that was me being pig headed, or stubborn, but there are certain things that I never really could excuse. I even started looking at relationships around me, such as my friends relationships and so on. I started thinking about why people leave each other, why break ups occur, and things come to mind like cheating, fighting (verbally) or not caring enough. It is apparent to me that Glen in the sickest way thinkable was cheating, even though he would probably not see it that way. He was indirectly fighting, or in confrontation with Bone, who is an extension of Anne. Lastly, he does not seem capable of actually caring for Anne or Bone, to me it seems like he is much more obsessed with controlling or overpowering them and none of those qualities are worthy of someone risking their own life, or the life of their own blood to stay with. I know that Raylene said that people have to make decisions when it comes to choosing loved ones and I can see what she said as being one way to look at things, but I really just don't think that there is anything in the world that someone could offer myself to make me keep that sort of danger in my life. I have been told that I run away from relationships whenever the slightest problem arises and in my case that may be a flaw, but I can say that by ridding my life of these ever so minor difficulties I have saved myself many headaches and much heartache, which is probably why in my own ignorance of what love truly is I cannot possibly fathom what Anne is thinking or sympathize with her and her actions.

The past two weeks I have been pretty sick and I have tried to avoid talking as much as possible in class, but there was definitely two parts of the reading that we talked about concerning "Bastard Out of Carolina" that I figured I would write about on this since I didn't really get to speak about it. Not that it's really worth taking class time to talk about either, but here it goes.
We talked about how the author attempted to convey the family knowing their status and people outside of the family seeing them as a certain way. I think that the difference here in comparison to the other stories is that this story is told by a little child. A child who is not only new to many aspects of life, but just like any child, is somewhat innocent. She is not going to just come out and say we are "white trash" and people look at my family this way. I think it is just assumed by the reader that they know their place in society. The bigger thing I felt like touching on was that I was actually emotionally touched in this reading. I don't often get too attached or into readings for school. Mostly because I don't find them to deal with my own interests that much. If we were reading sports or music books that might make it a little different, but I found myself actually upset (I would actually throw out worse words, but this is a G rated blog). The scene where Bone is getting sexually assualted or raped if you will, got me very fired up. I actually read through the passage twice just to make sure I was reading it right. For some reason I am not too sure about, two things that absolutely bother me more than any other action a man can take towards a girl are rape and hitting. It actually gave me this instinct to want to fight or kill him on behalf of Bone. It's like she was my own family member for a moment while I read. I know I used to channel a lot of bed thoughts out onto the football field and when I read this part of the story, I actually felt like the only natural thing to do was to go out on the field and try to let out some of that built up rage. I know it sounds weird but I used to actually picture the guy across from me doing something bad to my sister, my mother, or my girlfriend at the time, and I guess that is what made me a little more successful in the football aspect of my life, but looking back on it now, I think that just like when I read this, it could very easily have been the simple thought of such bad things that turned a switch in me, and I guess what I am saying is that the raping passage in the parking lot, as horrible as it was, actually moved me (not neccesarily in a positive way) and brought to my attention something that I know is still a serious issue in society today and made me want to actually get out of my bed and do something.

After reading James Dickey's poems and thinking about the things Dr. Wells posted on the class home blog, I found that a lot of his poems have similarities within them.
The most obvious theme to me is that of nature. I found this to be somewhat nice and refreshing because as I pictured this man writing these I first thought of a typical person from the 50's and 60's, but then for some reason, I pictured him being more of an early American guy who was still very much in touch with the outdoors and not so much the industrial society that was sprouting up at the time and has evolved into our present day mess that lacks so much of the little things everyone needs a little more of. I think everyone needs a little more "outdoorsness" (if that is a word) in them. I think it makes people, or myself anyway more calm and relaxed. He also writes of things such as the sun and water in a few of his poems which for me are indirect symbols of rebirth (in the sun coming up and going down) and thriving life (a flowing river) which contrasts with all of his writing of body parts falling asleep, actually sleeping, being dead and so on and so forth, which to me appeared a tad bit morbid. That in addition to him viewing someone in the afterlife combine to make me wonder a little about him. He seems to be a very blunt individual who is constantly flipping from happy go lucky, to sad and as I said before, a bit morbid. All of that aside, I still can say that since I am not a very big poetry guy, I did enjoy Dickey's writing mostly because of his attachments with the wilderness and the outdoors. He seemed to me like a "man's -man" and that is more than enough to grab my attention and it made for me to open my mind a little more than usual in order to read these poems.

I can honestly say that there has yet to be an author or a story that I was uninterested in or disliked, until now. I know many didn't really enjoy Faulkner or some of the other writings, but O'Connor's work was the one author that I felt as though I was actually drudging through just for the sake of getting the reading done. I agree with our discussion in class, that had I not been informed that O'Connor wrote most of her writings with religious purpose, I might not have even noticed it. This may be why it was hard for me to enjoy the reading. For example, in "Revelation" the way that Mrs. Turpin was constantly judging people, such as the girl being ugly and having acne, the fat lady, mentally questioning whether she'd rather be "white trash" or a "negro" all sort of threw up flags in my mind and made me wonder; "If this lady is supposed to be such a good and religious woman, how can she be so judgemental?" Now I know that O'Connor probably had good intentions when writing these pieces, but like I said, I do not find judging other creatures of God in such a negative fashion as being a "good Christian" (or whatever denomination she is). I did find it interesting that when she had those visions of the "other" people entering Heaven before "good" people it may have come as her sort of personal revelation and maybe that is why the story is titled the way it is. I also think that everytime everyday people are faced with certain situations or "reality checks" we are forced to look at ourselves and think of who we are or what we stand for, and that is something that perhaps she needed to do a little more of. Like I said, unfortunately this piece did not do much for me, and that is not saying that I am a superior Christian or that I am even close to a better one than the next, but I do know that one thing constantly went through my head and that was something I learned way back in my days of Sunday school and comes from the Bible itself; "Judge not lest ye be judged." And it is apparent that Mrs. Turpin (and not to bad mouth Flannery O'Connor, but possibly her as well) must have missed that week at church every year of her life.

I must admit that even after seeing "On the Water Front" and loving the "Godfather" trilogy, it completely slipped my mind what kind of actor Marlon Brando truly was. We were told in class to think about how he depicted the character of Stanley from the play, and I must admit that of all the actors that I am familiar with from that time period, he without a doub is the ideal actor to play this role. The way he can be cocky, arrogant, kind, caring, funny, and (not in a homosexual way) sexually appealing. It is hard for me to say that I know of many actors from generations as early as this one, but it is plain to see that he is one of those actors that could have been just as successful now as he was then. Not to understate how successful he was nevertheless.
I also found it interesting the idea that we talked about the directors censoring the movie and leaving out the fact that the first husband of Blanche's was gay. This made me think of how difficult a time Williams must have had when he originally wrote the play. Because as I read somewhere else, Williams himself, was a homosexual and faced scrutiny during a time period in which this was not socially acceptable. It is a shame that he had to deal with this because I am sure that many people never gave his work a chance based almost solely on this facet of his life which really has not much to do with the actual work itself. Luckily over the past half century people have become more apt to overlook such personal characteristics of artists and been able to focus more so on their actual works.

As we discussed in class, I found it very interesting how many different and detailed aspects there were to each character. I also believe that due to time constraints in class the point I found interesting did not receive enough attention. Within the stage directions on page 633 Williams compares Blanche to a moth. I found this to be a very interesting comparison, because Blanche is constantly trying to hide her old age throughout our first encounters with her. Much like how I envision a moth as being a strong white flying creature from a distance, once you get closer to it or even touch it you realize that it's texture is a dustlike one. This is similar to Blanche in that from far enough away or in the right light, she is a beautiful lady, whereas once you get close enough you can realize that she too is not so beautiful and youthful as she wishes to portray from a distance.
On a side note, I remember watching this movie with my father and brother who are both something resembling movie buffs, and I must admit that it was so long ago, and I never read the actual play that I cannot wait to see the movie again, only this time with a little more in depth understanding of what is actually going on.

As I mentioned in class one aspect of Hurston's that I noticed in our first section of reading was that contrary to how I personally ever perceived the black race during this time period, they did not differ that much from the stereotypical whites. I noticed this with "Jody" (Joe Starks). Jody starts out as an eager man with dreams and aspirations of making something of himself and being successful. Not that I am an expert of the female race, but I believe that he kind of uses this to his advantage when it comes to the courting of Janie. It is to my own understanding that (some) women find men attractive with some sense of ambition. So like I was saying, he used his own seemingly innocent character to attract Janie and as you know he eventually got what he wanted.
The twist of this that I find to be a bit comedic is that just like I have witnessed in so many situations, once he actually got the girl, he was content for a while. Then came the power which he let go to his head and while that was happening he kind of forgot about the things that were once important to him, namely Janie. It is an unfortunate thing that so many people even dating this far back in history, no matter what their race or culture, allow for a little power to corrupt their minds and lives. I know that I have already given thought to this sort of stuff in my own life, and as big as my own personal dreams are, and as confident in myself being successful as I am, I know that I will always remember how my parents and grandparents have dealt with successes (and failures for that matter) and I know that I have every intention of keeping an even keel through it all and hope to hold the set of morals and ethics that they have instilled in me through it all.