Cigarette Girl

I went to the showing of Cigarette Girl with only seeing the trailer for the movie. I expected some crazy movie about a post apocalyptic world in chaos over cigarettes, and a non stop shooting spree by some woman. The movie turned out to be MUCH more that what I imagined. The movie had real character development and thought. The plot had dept that i did not anticipate with certain twists that made me rethink my interpretation. I was able to see the connections that we made in class between Fiction and Non Fiction. I thought of how the names were very simple or they were not really a name like Cigarette Girl. It made the viewer create the characters how they saw fit. Watching the movie like a book was not as hard as it seemed. The lack of details in the movie made you picture things and situations differently from the other viewers. I do not know if this was done on purpose but it went well with the rest of the movie. Viewers had to draw their own conclusions on what is reality and what is fiction. This is a weird concept considering it is a completely fictional movie and you distinguish fact and fiction in the story line. There are alot of questions i would like to ask Mike McCarthy but at the same time i dont want an answer. I like the way that I interpreted the movie, but at the same time i want to know what his interpretation is. Its a paradox.

9/24 Questions

Group 1
“Where are you going, Where have you been?” by Joyce Carol Oates has an interesting title. It seems pretty explanatory and it has a certain irony to it. It refers to Connie’s mother always asking her questions and comparing her to June, her sister. It’s a question because it’s an undertone for the entire story, the audience knows where Connie is but Connie does not. The question is in two parts because of the way Connie feels about her situation, she is trying to find her own path in life. Connie wants to be herself and not just a replica of her “perfect” sister June, but at the same time she struggles to be accepted by her mother.
Group 2
The mysterious boy in the story is Arnold Friend. He is a guy that met Connie at the hamburger joint and said “Gonna get you, baby” while she was with another guy named Eddie. His initials, A. Friend, are misleading. His appearance, car, and attitude are an exact opposite of the image of “a friend”. He was named right for the story because the story had a creepy tone throughout and Arnold fit perfectly. He has an unmistakable gold convertible with random decals on it. It goes along with his “cool” attitude and his fonz style.
Group 3
I think the secret code that Arnold revels to Connie is nothing more than the bible verse that was posted on the blog. Arnold does not explain what the numbers 33 19 17 mean, he just states they are a code. The bible verse that they come from has the title “Where are you going, Where have you been?” in a different wording. The wording in the book of Judas is “Whither goest thou? and whence comest thou?” which is too close to be a coincidence. The numbers are in the story as a symbol for questioning yourself along with Connie.
Group 4
The tone of the story starts out as Connie’s mom is scalding her for the things she does. Connie hates the fact that she is compared to Junes and is spiteful. Connie starts to wander off and the tone becomes rebellious. Connie goes to a hamburger joint to meet guys and hang out while her parents thought she was at the mall. The tone then turns creepy as Arnold Friend comes to her house so they can go for a ride. It also has an ironic tone in the fact that Connie wants to be with her family when Arnold pulls up. Connie thought that she wanted to be by herself and do her own thing but in reality she wanted the acceptance of her family.

My Impressions

Stories, movies, and music all have their own ways of expressing a story to their audience. Stories give the audience text but the reader provides the character’s voice and image. Songs give the audience a story and a voice but the listener still provides an image. Movies provide the reader with everything about the character but this enables the watcher to dive deeper into the story. Oate’s story is a good story but it has creepy undertones throughout the plot. When you read “Where are you going, Where have you been?” you create the voices and images for Connie, Arnold, Elle, etc. The reader makes the story their own with their individual character expressed while they read. When you watch the short film, you get a voice for the characters and it changes your perception of the story. The short film changes the plot of the story but the basic idea of “Where are you going, Where have you been?” is still there. Bob Dylan’s “Its all over now, Baby blue” has the voices like the short story but the reader has to work more to create the story. All of them change my view on the story because I watched the movie “Smooth Talk” first. I already had an image for the characters and their voices before I read everything else. However, the other iterations had an effect on how I perceived the story. I was able to dive deeper into the story because of all the different views and information I got on the characters. The most interesting and disturbing pieces that I read were the non-fiction ones. It shows me that it is no longer a “make believe” story and it was inspired by true events. The story becomes real in a sense and it makes me that more involved in wanting to know everything that happened.

Ingredients,Process, Made Thing..........

The dissection of a piece of literature helps the reader better understand a story and what the author was trying to convey. As we dissected the three pieces in class, it helped me better understand the work and the writer. The process of ingredients, process, and the made thing can be attributed to all of our readings. “A&P”, “Rites of Passage”, and “The one Girl at the Boys’ Party” are stories that once they are broken down, they make the reader revaluate their previous thoughts. If you break down the stories to their smallest parts the reader can start to draw parallels between the readings. Even though each story is different in its plot and storyline, they share the same structure. The ingredients are the raw material for any piece of literature. The process is how the author uses the ingredients to create the made thing. The made thing is the overall message of the story or what the reader is able to take away from the story.
“A&P” is a very detailed story of three girls in a grocery told from the perspective of a cashier, Sammy. It seems like the average story of a boy trying to impress the hot girl, but as we break it down it becomes more. There are tons of ingredients in “A&P” such as “bathing suits”, “Oh Daddy”, food items, and summer colony, but the main ones are the characters Sammy, Queenie, and Mr. Lengel. These ingredients are mixed with the setting of a grocery store, public nudity, and the presence of the girls to produce a clear picture for the reader. The process of adding all of these things together including the attitudes of the main characters makes me understand and connect with the characters more. Breaking it down shows the relationship between the blue collar worker and the “dream girl”, but at the same time it shows their shared conflict versus Mr. Lengel. Updike’s great details in the story help the reader combine all the ingredients into a bigger picture. This bigger picture and “made thing” is the one of a hero that does the right thing, but is now lost in new found freedom.
The poem “Rites of Passage” can be interpreted in many different ways, which is the beauty of a poem. The breaking down of “Rites of Passage” into its three parts helped me understand the different ways it can viewed. Many of the ingredients are ironic like children, generals, turrets, small bankers, 7 year old, kill a two year old. Sharon Olds manages to intertwine the carelessness of small children with the very serious world of career men. She takes her ingredients and combines them with quick line breaks and italics to stress words. Her careful planning helps guide the reader to better understand the meaning of children becoming men. It is her process of combining these opposite things into a smooth flowing poem that the reader can only understand once they disassemble “Rites of Passage”. The “made thing” that Olds creates is an ironic view of boys and their parallels to full grown men.
The last poem that we discussed “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party” also has ingredients, process, and a made thing. It was the story of a lone girl at a swimming party with all boys that was told from the perspective of her parents. Olds includes ingredients like tower, hamburgers and fries, strip to their suits, hard body, sweet face, curves of the sexes, and math. Her process is one of irony just like “Rites of Passage”, comparing a little girl to upper level math. She describes the girl and what the girl is thinking in a way she could not understand at her age. Sharon olds other process shows the reader the girl maturing from the beginning of the poem to the end. The parent’s perspective of the poem tells the reader what the “made thing” could be. It could be that your children grow up fast and you should not miss a minute of it.
All three stories have different characters, setting and plots, but in the end they have the same composition. They all have ingredients that were usually the characters. The processes were in the descriptions and the way the stories were written. The made thing was always involving growing up and learning from your mistakes. Breaking these stories down helps the reader visualize the story thus making them understand its true meaning.

Assignment 2

John Updike Interview
After watching the John Updike interview, it reinforced my image of the character of Sammy. Updike’s explanation of Sammy is just a more detailed version of my interpretation. The only part that really changed my perception on the story is the background information that Updike explained. I liked to learn about how different situations in Updike’s life helped him create the story. He explained that Sammy was based off himself as a teenager and Sammy’s manager was based off his wife’s manager. The other part that made me think was the time in the United States that the story was set in. It was during a time of rebellion and nonconformity. Sammy was a blue collar teen working in a grocery store to make a living. This setting made me realize that there is more depth to the story than I originally thought, and there is more depth to the consequences that Sammy has to endure. After Sammy quits, Updike explains that he now has to deal with the rumors around a small town. He has given up his “good name” for three girls that vanish on him. Updike gave a great perception on the story and created a picture of the real Sammy for everyone to imagine.

"Rites of Passage" and "The Only Girl at the Boys' Party"
The two poems that we read visualize heroism differently than John Updike. Updike’s approach deals with an emotional and non structured confrontation. An example of Updike’s style is Sammy quitting a job on a quick impulse. Both poems by Sharon Olds are detailed and have a disciplined feeling. In "Rites of Passage" the seven year olds are portrayed like soldiers and the speaker’s son is portrayed like a General. He instructs his “troops” after much debate, that they could “easily kill a two year old”. In "The Only Girl at the Boys' Party" there is one brave girl that is invited to an all boys party. Olds creates the picture of the girl standing strong in the presence of boys by creating metaphors of school and math. In both poems Olds creates metaphors using disciplined areas of life, the military and school. It’s ironic however that she makes metaphors using these areas when the children are so small. The first graders could not really know about the military or war just like the girl at the party would not understand some of the math in the poem. I liked that way that both writers found a way to convey a feeling of heroism in the main character. Updike and Olds used completely different methods but in the end they reach the same ideal of heroism.

The Hero of A&P

What is a Hero?

“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

When someone thinks of a hero they usually think of comic books or action figures. A person can picture Superman or Spiderman rushing in to save the day when they think of the word “hero”. These characters display all kinds of heroic traits like bravery, strength, fearlessness, compassion. These characters are the epitome of what a hero should be, but the problem is these heroes are fictional. The ironic thing is that these traits of fictional characters come from human emotions. These “Heroes” are based off heroes that are part of our everyday lives. There are millions of heroes created everyday from the teacher that helps a child read to a fireman that goes into a burning building.

The superhero aspect of heroism is just what the name implies, they are superhuman. They have superpowers and they are expected to be a hero. The public counts on them to save the day at a moment’s notice. These fictional characters are created by people to try and generalize what a hero should be. Many try to generalize them as some person with amazing powers and the ability to defy physics. These powers make them do amazing things like saving the world from certain destruction. The authors may try to stereotype heroes into a certain mold, but the real heroes break the mold every day.

In the real world a person does not need superpowers to be a hero. Heroes come from ordinary people that have the courage to do extraordinary things. These extraordinary things can be a variety of things, but they all serve their purpose. Everyday heroes are not trying to become heroes, they are just doing their jobs. An example of this is the heroism portrayed by firefighters and police officers during the 9/11 attacks. They were just doing their jobs under extraordinary circumstances. They did not ask to become heroes on that day, it just happened. They were not looking for recognition or gratitude but only to save the lives of people trapped inside the buildings. Everyday heroes are not born heroes, they become them.

The question that is asked is whether or not Sammy was a hero in the story. At the beginning of the story Sammy is just an ordinary employ working his ordinary job when three girls walk into the store. Sammy, like the other male employees watch the girls as they walk around the isles. Sammy suddenly quits his job because his manager embarrassed three girls for coming into the grocery in swim suits. I think Sammy was a hero because he did what he thought was right. He could not stand to work for someone that could break down a person for something so simple. Sammy looked for some type of gratitude at the end, but he is only human. He did not come into the store looking to be a hero that day and quit his job. Sammy was under extraordinary circumstances and became a hero.

1st assignment

The North Wind and Sun

1. The North Wind had a very aggressive personality and was forceful. The sun was much more calm.
2. The North Wind was too forceful and the man just held onto his cloak tighter.
3. The Sun was more gentle and persuaded him to take off the cloak. He was not as forceful like the North Wind.
4. The human takes the roll of a guinea pig for the Sun and North Wind to test their powers.
5. The Sun used persuasion and was more successful that the North Wind at making the man remove his cloak.

A & P

1. The sound that the cash register makes as he rings up prices brings the story to life for me. It makes you realize how long he has been there and the things he has notices about the store.
2. Updike paints a good picture of Sammy for the reader. He shows his attention to detail in the store, then his humanity for the girls. He is no less of a hero just because he wants to be recognized for his actions. The doctor is not as detailed as Sammy and does not have much dialog.
   
3. The exposition is when Sammy starts to explain the girls. It makes the reader realize why Sammy quit his job. He explained the embarrassment of the Queenie.
4. He just thinks they are some random tourists that he would like to come to his line. As the story moves on he develops a relationship with the girls. He starts to like them.
   
5. The dramatic conflict comes when Lengel comes out of his office and confronts the girls. The climax is when Sammy simply says "i quit".
6. On the surface Sammy quits for the girls, but it seems like Sammy was unhappy at A&P. He wanted to leave like the girls had left, without looking back.
7. I suspected Sammy to have sympathy for them when he started paying close attention to Queenies face. He noticed her blush, and her embarrassment.
8. Sammy made a quick decision and now has to endure the consequences. Its going to be hard because he doesnt have a job, and he quit the job that his parents got for him.
9. Updike makes the comment on how the manager is perceived as law even when the conditions of the situation have changed. People have to be understanding to situations or face consequences of being too harsh.