Thursday, April 24, 2008
Freewrite
In the second paragraph I think the topic sentence, which is the first sentence needs to change and describe what vegans do to try and help the environment by what they eat. I just thought that the rest of this paragraph was a persuasive argument that did not relate to the beginning of the paragraph.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Tony Harrison "A Cold Coming"
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Response to Interview
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Tony Harrison “A Cold Coming”
T.S. Eliot “Journey of the Magi”
Ursula LeGuin “She Unnames Them”
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
William Butler Yeats “Leda and the Swan”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson “Ulysses”
Margaret Atwood “Siren Song”
Monday, April 7, 2008
Introduction to Essay #3
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Annotated Bibliography
This website is great for getting background information on Chinua Achebe and his feelings on some of his works and why he wrote them. This was the first source I found and it helped me understand the Nigerian war even better and its affect on how he wrote Civil Peace. This source will be very useful for my paper. It will provide me with
basic information about Nigeria, but most importantly it will give me an idea through quotes of how Achebe feels about the story and the Nigerian War.
Emenyonu, Ernest. “Post-War Writing in Nigeria.” Issue: A Journal of Opinion 3:2 (1973): 49-54.
This source was another very interesting source. It offered an overview of what kind of writing was being done after the Nigerian War by Nigerians. It quotes Achebe and gives insight into why he wrote the way he did and what specific aspects of the war affected his writing. I learned from this source that the war had a huge affect on Achebe’s writing and the points he wants to get across. I can definitely use this source to show how Achebe’s life has influenced his writing.
Interview: Chinua Achebe on Biafra. Transition. 36 (1968): 31-38.
I found this interview to be very interesting. It took part right in the middle of the Nigerian War. Achebe was still living in Nigeria at the time and is able to give many first hand experiences. Achebe’s responses indicated that he is really intent on affairs in Nigeria getting better. I think using this source is so important to my paper. The
theme I am addressing in my paper is war and the hardships and struggles people face after it. I can use this source to show how hard the war was, which made it difficult for the country as a whole to adapt once it was over.
Nafziger, Wayne E. The Economics of Political Instability: the Nigerian-Biafran war.
Colorado: Westview Press, 1983.
This source gives reasons as to why it was so difficult for the Nigerians to form a government after they were not under British rule anymore. It discusses how the country was dealing with difficult things, like thieves, which can be seen in Civil Peace. I learned from this source that the Nigerians were under British rule for so long that it was hard for them to come together as one people and form stable and working government. I can use this source to show why it was easy for thieves to rob people in Civil Peace and how this was common after the war ended.
Niven, Rex. The war of Nigerian Unity. Ibadan: Evans Brothers, 1970.
This source provides great information about the historical context of the Nigerian War. It is very objective because it just states the facts. It gives great information that I can link to certain situations in the short story. I learned about how the war started and
what it did to Nigeria from this book. After reading some information from this source it gave me a clearer picture as to why some of the characters acted the way they did in the story. This source would be helpful because it provides me with a great basis on what the war did to Nigeria as a country and a people.
Ojinmah, Umelo. Chinua Achebe: new perspectives. Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited, 1991.
This source gives an account of how Nigerians were written about after the Nigerian War. This source shows that Achebe has pride in his country and wants it to improve. This book delves into why Achebe writes the way he does. It discusses his life experiences and how they affect his writings. This text will help me even more with relating Achebe’s personal experiences to the short story. Using this source will be very beneficial because it will help me to show the importance of knowing the author’s background information because it can be transferred into the piece of literature
Topic Proposal #3
Researching the author is also important to understanding the theme of war in this story. Chinua Achebe is Nigerian and was alive during and after the war and often relates some of his experiences to the war and the short story. I think researching him and getting some of his first hand accounts of the war would be very beneficial in understanding the text even better. Knowing that he was alive during the war and in Nigeria during some of it gives him even more credibility and helps me to understand the story even more. While reading it I continuously thought about how optimistic the main character Jonathan was. Knowing that Achebe is Nigerian helps me to better understand why he was so happy. Achebe wants his country to get better as a whole and having an optimistic character helps lighten the mood and make it feel like things will get better.
As of now I think I have all of the information I need. For this essay I want to link the information about the war and Chinua Achebe to the short story and how its theme of war is portrayed.
Thesis: One of the themes from Civil Peace by Chinua Achebe is the struggle and hardships of life after war. This theme can be better understood through knowledge of the Nigerian War and through knowledge of the life of Achebe.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
"Trifles" and "A Jury of Her Peers" Susan Glaspell
A Jury of Her Peers and Trifles by Susan Glaspell are very similar in nature. They both share the same plot. However, one piece is a play and one is a short story . I found that it was easier for me to read the short story. I believe plays are easier to understand if they are actually acted out, rather than reading them alone. Personally, I liked the short story better because it flowed much better because there were no breaks to denote what a character was doing. The only advantage I found in reading the play was that its title was more poignant. Another thing I found interesting was that even though both pieces have different names, both titles are effective after reading the pieces. The short story is named A Jury of Her Peers because Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter basically decided the fate of Minnie. They both decided not to turn in the evidence and, therefore, held a major role in the story. The name of the play is also very interesting. In the play Hale states that women are constantly “worrying over trifles.” Yet, these are the same trifles that if the men paid attention to they would be able to get plenty of evidence against Minnie. It is very ironic that the men are sarcastic towards the women during the whole play when the women solved the case.
Before I first read the pieces I thought it would be easier to base the Cultural/Historical analysis off of the play because I thought it would be more descriptive. However, as I read the short story I changed my mind. I think through the descriptions given, it would be easier to relate the short story to what was actually going on in America at the time it was written. It would be good to research women's rights at the time and how women were perceived, especially by the opposite sex.