Poe

 Personally Poe has been a huge influence, to no only my writing, but how I read things too. Before I started reading Poe, I wouldn’t look into a story as much and would just assume what the author said. Now, when I read a story, I analyze every sentence to make sure I understand anything the author could have mean’t when he or she wrote it. When it comes to my writing, Poe was a even bigger influence upon me with the way that he placed dark scenery and even darker storylines. I would have to say that my favorite piece of work from Poe is “The Cask of Amontillado,” this is my favorite of his stories because of the extremely dark elements and the suspense that it is filled with. The ended did nothing less than shock me, and I never saw it coming, and that I what I love to read in writing, the element of surprise.

My Favorite Novel

I felt that it was time that I share what my favorite novel of all time is, and that is "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D Sallinger. Most people enjoy this most when they are a teenager, but i read it first when i was a teen and didn't care much for it to be honest. It wasn't until I was in my first year of college that i decided that i should read it again, and i am glad that I did. The main reason why I love this story so much is because of the character, Holden Caulfield, and how much i felt that I could relate myself to him. You could tell that Holden really didn't care for humankind as a whole, but loved individual people separately, and that is what is so engaging about this story. Like most of the characters in stories, we find ourselves relating to them in some way, but it was different with this character, and that is why I enjoy it so much.

Uncomfortable Reads

I consider myself a pretty dark writer, and enjoy to write out of the norm, but some of the stories that we were assigned to read sort of made me uncomfortable in a way. The main story that made me feel this way was "Going to Meet the Man" I felt that this story was good, but really uncomfortable considering what it was about. Basically the man got aroused because he was thinking about the hanging of a black man that he saw when he was a child. I felt the thought alone is enough to disturb someone and then i tried to think about the time period. I  can see how in that time that may be uncommon, but no where near normal, i feel that it was something that would even shock some of the most racist people

A Streetcar named Desire

I havent been a fan of plays that I have read in the past, so I wasn't expecting much when I was told to read this play. But I was pleasantly surprised after i finished it, and i thought it was very well written. I also enjoyed the amount of symbolism that was used in this play, i thought that the use of light to represent the lost beauty of Blanche was something that made the play. I also felt that the dialog was perfectly written to the situation that Williams wrote about. Another thing that i felt was interesting was the relationships between the men and the women and the amount of problems that they have to face with each other.

Southern Dialect in American Lit.

After reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, the number one thing that I noticed was the use of southern dialect in the story. In the beginning, i thought that it would be impossible to read, but what I realized into the story was that I would have to try and use a southern accent in the way that I read it. After becoming the character, it became easier to read and understand the message that was being conveyed. Other stories used this type of dialect also, including "The 'Cadian Ball" by Kate Chopin. Chopin's stories I found extremely difficult to understand because of the use of French within the southern dialect, I had to reread the story several times to completely understand what the characters were saying. I may be complaining about the use of this dialect, but I certainly do not think that they should be excluded from the story just because I cannot understand them, It was obviously something that meant a lot to the writer and therefore it should be in there.

Sandburg Poetry

Poetry has always been my favorite form of writing and I have done quite a few of it in the years, so when we were assigned to a poetry pod i was pretty excited. To my surprise, I didn't really care  for most of the authors that we were assigned to read, not really getting the message they were trying to show, and if so, not understanding the relevance of it. Probably the only writer that I really enjoyed was Carl Sandburg, I loved his personification and the simple descriptive language that he uses throughout. "Grass" was my favorite out of his pieces and I also enjoyed "Chicago."