Dorothy Allison has definitely created a very graphic text. The characters that she created are quite interesting. I feel a lot of sympathy for Bone, who can't even be safe in her own home or depend on her mother. She's betrayed by the women that she adores, and I can't imagine the amount of pain she must feel. She doesn't have a legitimate father and now she doesn't really have a mother either. When it comes to Anney, (starting when I read page 291) I decided that I hated her as a character. In the beginning I felt sorry for her because she was looking for a father for her children, and someone to help her take care of them and when she had to choose between them she was faced with a tough decision. However, after being present while her daughter was severely abused physically and sexually and still betraying her daughter I can't even imagine. I think for too long Anney wanted to deny that these things were happening to her daughter, and in some cases I feel that she was selfish because of it. Bone asked herself the question "Could she love me and still hold him like that?" (291.) In my opinion I don't see how she can watch her daughter go through not only this tremendous amount of physical pain but also emotional pain, and still claim to love her. However, the one thing I will praise Anney for is the choice she made at the end of the story. I think that by walking out of Bone's life she gave her the opportunity to be safe, and also the potential to find her identity. This makes me as a reader pleased with the ambiguous ending, because I'm able to hope that Bone succeeds.
While reading the last section of this book the one character I compared Bone to as Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God. They were both in search of their identity throughout the novel, and we watched their stregth develop as the story progressed. Janie and Bone are both portrayed as victims and end up fighting back in the end to try to protect themselves. Janie fights back against Tea Cake, and Bone tries to fight against Daddy Glenn after being compliant for so long. Overall, I really enjoyed Bastard Out of Carolina. It was one of the easiest to understand the plot, which gave me the ability to look at the themes with more depth.

Falling is my favorite of the James Dickey poems. The first thing that I noticed about it was the length, and strange paragraph/sentence breaks. As I mentioned in class one of the things that strikes me odd about this poem is the quiet tone that he begins with. When I read the except on the top of the page from the New York Times I wasn't sure if it was about Dickey's poem, or what he saw before he wrote the poem. Part of the reason I like this poem so much is because falling is something that happens quite fast, and you really have no time to think about what's going on. But in this case Dickey created thoughts for the stewardess. It's kind of abstract to think about but I wonder what it's like to fall from a plane like that. Maybe it really does feel like a drawn out process, and you are able to think about all these things and see your life in a different light. The one thought we didn't develop too much in class in towards the end when she strips herself of all her clothes. My thought on this is that she was trying to disclaim who she was. I'm not sure exactly why she would want to do that, but the connection that was mentioned in class seems to make sense. She wanted to be naked to bring herself back to a the state that she was born in. We are born naked, so I guess she wanted to die naked too. I'm sure I totally understand this concept. As the poem develops Dickey shifts to a more urgent tone, which would symbolize the fact that she was getting closer to her death, and the last seconds of life. Another thing that I found interesting was the connection Dickey made with water in this poem. "Do something with water fly to it fall in it drink it rise From it but there is none left upon earth the clouds have drunk it back The plants have sucked it down..." (Page 296) I think the connection Dickey made is the idea of water being connected with life. Especially in the beginning with baptism, and rebirth. Water is an essential part of living, and in this case it was the essential to breaking her fall. ("fall in it")
Although it's hard for me to interpret poetry with help from our class discussion I feel more confident in understanding Dickey's poetry.

One of the most interesting aspects of Flannery O'Connor's stories is the characters she creates. The first thing we learn about most of her characters is that they are flawed, in one way or another. Mrs. Turpin definitely has flaws, although she tries to present herself as a character who is polite and invested in Christian values. However, throughout the story we learn that although she is polite with the words that come out of her mouth, most of the time she has much more to say than she actually does. She ends up letting the people around her know exactly what she's thinking (regardless of if they really want to know) with facial expressions, and gestures. We learn a lot about Mrs. Turpin by O'Connor's physical description. O'Connor states that she has a large body, this represents the fact that she is very controlling of everything around her. O'Connor also pays special attention to her "little bright black eyes." This type of eye is symbolic considering the way she looks at everyone through a very narrow gaze. Mrs. Turpin is extremely critical of others, we learn this when we see her placing people into "classes" with something as minor as what type of shoe they are wearing. Throughout the story we learn that she's much more concerned with social values, than the actual Christian values. Mrs. Turpin didn't like the feeling that Mary Grace was judging her with her eyes, even though she judges everyone all the time. One of the things that I see with Mrs. Turpin that we didn't discuss in class is the fact that she is obsessed with "whiteness" which we have seen many times before. She makes many references to white being the superior race, and she thanks jesus that he made her white. On the bottom of page 823 she states "That's what they all want to do, everyone of them, improve their color."All of these things contribute in making her a flawed character, that I really can't relate to. Although I enjoyed reading O'Connor's works, none of the characters that she created were ones that I could relate or empathize with.

Overall I thought the presentations were excellent. I think everyone did a very good job researching and presenting about their topics. They were very interesting and informative to watch. I think everyone used good visual aids to help us really understand the topics. One of the most interesting topics for me was the music. To see something explained from the Southern viewpoint that's such a big part of our lives is interesting. I grew up loving Elvis as a young child, and it's nice to hear about him. I also enjoyed the presentation about the cultural divisions between the North and the South. I think it's something that's often looked past that still strongly exists. The explanation about the family really makes sense. Even in the stories we have read so far this semester we have talked a lot about families, and the importance of the extended families. Many times we talk about the importance of grandmother's and nannies on the lives of these characters. Overall, great informative presentations!!!

In Flannery O'Connor's story A Good Man is Hard to Find, she has created some very flawed characters. The one thing we've been talking about throughout the semester is the idea of families, and the close relationship between them. However, this family seems to be missing a lot and one of the most important things they are missing is love. We don't see any real love in the family between the mother and father or between the parents and the children. The entire family tends to ignore grandmother, and treats her almost as if she is a bother to them. In this story O'Connor seems to dramatize the fact that they need love. Even though all the characters are flawed the one character that seems to have the most depth is the grandmother. She attempts to show the children the land, and share stories from the past but they want nothing to do with it. This leads her to the conclusion that children were much more respectful in the past. Also with grandmother there was a close similarity between her and Blance from A Street Car Named Desire. Both Blanche and grandmother seem to be preoccupied, or stuck in the past. They both attempt to represent themselves as the Southern Belle, although they are both getting up there in age which obviously makes this a little bit harder for them. The grandmother also appears to be manipulative, which fits in with some of the negative qualities that Blanche portrays also. Another interesting/flawed character that was part of this story was obviously the Misfit. He's portrayed as a person who has seen everything, and done it all but nothing seems to phase him. He's dipicted as crazy and even a sociopath. The Misfit has a physical appearance that doesn't seem to fit who he really is. He's an older man that has a scholarly look about him (especially with the description of his glasses), which wouldn't seem threatening to most but we obviously learn that he is.

One of the most important details that Kazan really adds to the movie is the sexual tension/attraction between Stanley and Blanche. I think the script is defintely amplified here. One thing I noticed is whenever Stanley and Blanche talk they are extremely close to each other, and it seems that their body language really adds to the sexual attraction between the two. In the movie we can see more clearly that there is this suggestion of an attraction between the two which kind of gives us a little bit of foreshadowing for the rape at the end of the story.
On the other hand we are really able to see the relationship between Stella and Stanley. Stanley is very muscular which adds to him being dominant and masculine. While Stella is quite petite, which adds to Stanley having this great power of control over her. We also see how Stella is dependent on Stanley economically because there's the scene where she takes the money from his wallet, which obviously shows she has no money of her own.
One thing that we haven't discussed very much in class is the significance of the title, and I was wondering what other people's opinion were on that?

In Tennessee Williams "A Street Car Named Desire" Blanche is one of the central characters of the play. She's extremely materialistic and very concerned with her personal appearance. Gender roles also come into play and are relate to her as a character. She is portrayed as a Southern Belle that seems to be losing her good looks, money, and eagnerness to be involved with men. She expects people to wait on her, and she doesn't want to be bothered lifting a finger. Blanche wants to be the center of attention, especially for the males in the story. This is most evident in the poker scene. She says to Stella "wait till I powder up before you open the door." (647)
Stella has a much different personality than her sister Blanche. Despite the insults that Blanche sends her way about her husband, her living space, etc. Stella doesn't seem to be bitter, she's witty about the comments that she makes. She's very modest, and not preoccupied with material things. The relationship between Stella and Blanche is complicated and this is due to the fact that they have very different personalities. Although despite their differences they both want the best for each other, and neither shows jealously towards the other. Blanche criticizes Stella only because she wants the best for her.