In this blog post I looked closely at A Good Man is Hard to Find and wrote a lot specifically about the symbolism I thought I saw.
In this blog post I did a close reading of "A Song in the
Front Yard" by about the tension and the speaker among other things.
This was the blog in which I used the close reading a poem
hand out to look at McKay’s poem "America'. In
it I examined everything from tension to form to the sounds of the poem.
I selected these all these poems for the same reason. To be completely honest, I wasn’t very
impressed with myself this semester, but at least in these posts I was able to
close read the text. I think I could
have taken them a step further than just a formalist style analysis. However, it is what it is.
Ideas about Literature
I don’t think my ideas about literature as a whole have
changed over this semester. I would say
that I now understand different periods (post- modernism, modernism ext.) of
literature a lot clearer.
What have I learned. . . .
Well, as I stated earlier I have learned a lost about
modernism and post-modernism. I have to
add that I also learned a lot about Mckay and the Harlem Renaissance (for my
essay). I think I have also decided (after
much deliberation) that appreciating a piece of writing makes it almost as enjoyable
as loving it. I would go as far as to
say that it is its own type of less passionate, less demanding love.
Performance this Semester
I did not perform as well this semester as I would have
liked. I could list excuses, but they
would just be excuses. I worked hard on
the essay, but could have worked harder.
I did not try my best on the blogs. I kept too quiet for a lot of the
group discussions.
Strengths as a Writer and Thinker
Let us start with the positive.
I have a brain that is pretty darn functional when fed caffeine
and vitamins.
I try to remain open to new/different styles and ideas about
writing. I am not always good at doing
this, but I think the effort helps me to appreciate a decent variety of
different styles.
I want to/ but do not need to understand a text. Both parts of that statement are important.
First, I want to understand what I read.
I have seen a lot of people give up quickly if they don’t understand
something they have read and I think this is a weakness because if one does
this one will never learn. The fact that
I can do this means I am open to learning right?
The fact that I do not have to understand a text is a strength
as well. It means that I can live of the
rhythm and other aspects of text without feeling completely frustrated.
I am not sure what my strengths as a writer are
anymore. I am in one of those frustrated
states where I feel completely talentless right now. I have always gotten back out of them, but it
is very discouraging to feel like giving up (just writing of course). I got rhythm and a decent vocabulary at least. J
Weaknesses
I am currently in an interesting state (as described above).
So, I feel like I have a lot of weaknesses but, I will just list a few.
Whenever I read something I have written it feels
forced. It feels like I have pulled out
my poetic and essay-ic teeth in order to get something on the page. Maybe it
just sounds that way to me but it feels so stale. I do not feel that way when writing just when
reading back over everything.
Grammar- it is still quite horrible.
I often stop myself from even trying to write because I feel
like I have no skill or don’t know what to say.
This is very counterproductive.
I am too hard on myself sometimes and not hard enough on
myself at other times.
Grading Myself
I would give myself a “C” because I don’t think I tried hard
enough in class or on the blogs. I did
okay on the essay, but I could have done better with more effort. I am glad this class is not graded by some scale
of effort measured in some magic way. I
would like an “A” but, I guess we shall see.
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