FINAL PRESENTATION

Blog #7 Reflection

As far as writing goes, I feel that the MLA format has been refreshed.  I feel that I now can decipher an MLA and APA citation instantly and know which to use for an essay.  I do not feel that my writing has improved much, but I do feel that the more I write, the faster I can write an essay.  In college, that is a very good advantage to have because college students are very busy!

I have been ahead on all of the assignments in this class and have around an A+.  I do not like to procrastinate, so this class is great to work ahead on.  I have completed all of the assignments stated in the syllabus thus far, and plan on finishing the rest of them very soon. 

The readings have been very interesting to me.  For example, reading the The Sandstorm and my poem, "The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window" was very very good reading.  Usually readings in English class can be tedious and boring, however these were not. 

The challenges in this class were just to stay on track with all of the assignments.  I really enjoyed the fact that we could work ahead.  That made it easier when I had to work a lot during the week.  Some challenges would have been finding time to write the essays.  That always takes a little while. 

Annotated Bibligraphy

Abernethy, Michael D. "Beneath the Surface."

           

          Times-News (Burlington, NC)Print. 2011.

            This article is great for my research because it gives statistics about the victims of PTSD.  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that as many as 95 percent of veterans returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have some form of PTSD.  This article will provide good evidence for my argument about PTSD.  The article also talks about what the VA is doing for campaigns about PTSD.  The article also talks about suicide rates after soldiers come back from war.

CHRISTINA BOYLE DAILY NEWS,STAFF WRITER. "WAR TRAUMA IDENTICAL FOR BOTH SEXES, STUDY FINDS." New York Daily News (NY): 16. Print. 2011.

          I will use this source in my final paper because it talks about how men and women can both walk away from warfare with the same chance of getting Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).   Even though women are not involved in my play, the article talks about how there are many veterans that experience post war problems.  This will back up my research about my essay.  This source shows that the medical field is delayed in research about PTSD and I think that is a problem.  In addition, this will help my essay to compare how the soldiers might have had PTSD problems after their tour in Iraq.   

Jim Farber, Staff W. "IRAQ WAR VET USES THEATER FOR THERAPY - VETSTAGE OFFERS HOPE WITH ACTING." Daily News of Los Angeles (CA): U10. Print. 2007.

          This article is perfect for my research about PTSD because it talks about Sean Huze and his struggles with the disorder.  The article will provide evidence about what Sean has gone through and how he has turned his therapy into theater.  The article talks about how Sean has created a foundation for veterans to come and get help with PTSD.  Those facts will contribute to my essay.  In addition, the facts behind who Sean Huze is will help with my writing about him in my essay. 

The Sandstorm Quote

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I chose the quote from the play, The Sandstorm by Sean Huze because the play was very current and I can relate to the story better than the World War II story.  The quote I chose was, “What could be closer to playing God than ending another’s life?" (Huze 17).   I underlined this in the play when I was reading it the other week.  I underlined it because of how the soldier compared warfare to playing God.  I never thought of it like that, however obviously God can end a person’s life in a snap of his fingers.  This quote gives meaning to the play because the central theme is warfare.  It discusses the horrors that regular people never witness.  The solider discusses how he doesn’t enjoy killing a man, but it is “powerful.”  That is dramatic in the sense that the media in today’s culture kill people in movies all the time.  However, most people never personally witness a murder or kill someone in their lifetime.  The soldier continues to discuss how after the death, he “searched for some sort of human feeling of regret or compassion.  Searched and searched and came up with nothing" (Huze 17).  That is the reckless, inhumane concept of warfare.  The men become desensitized to murder, never realizing that they are “playing God.” 

            My cousin and her husband have both had multiple tours in Iraq, so I think of both of them when reading this poem.  Her husband came back with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.  This goes to show how the men in this play came back from Iraq as different men.  There is no way that they could have encountered these events, without becoming a little bit insane.  It is very sad that people like my cousin and her husband still deal with the nightmares of war till this day.  

To learn about Posttraumatic Stress Disorder click here: http://www.medicinenet.com/posttraumatic_stress_disorder/article.htm

Forache & Hamill v. my poem

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The aspects of Forache that I could relate to with my poem were the political and personal poetry of witnesses. Forache said that the political poetry of witness focuses on “public partisanship that is considered divisive” and personal with “love and emotional loss.” (Forache “Witness”). My poem seemed to be a mix of both the political and personal because there was some sort of a connection between the woman and the witness, because she knew her background. However, it could also be political because of the witness devising a plan to show the woman’s background and give her a choice.
Sam Hamill does a great job seeing the victims and not the witnesses. He has helped teach men and women in prisons among other places. He says that witnesses, “can’t bear much reality” (Hamill “Necessity”) therefore they just stay frozen to the spot when they see events. This is very relative to my poem, because the witness and the people below just stood and watched, or cheered the woman to jump off. This also relates to my poem because he says that “writing creates emotion in the audience, the writer’s responsibility is enormous” (Hamill “Necessity”). This helps prove my thesis because of the poetry of witnesses have a purpose in their writing.
Sam views poetry from the point of the pain that the person goes through from the poet side. Forache viewed it from the witness side. However, they are alike because they sympathize with the writers in poetry.
I agree with the parts about how poetry of witnesses can be trying to accomplish different things with being a personal or political witness. However, I disagree with how they can’t be both. I could see how the political witness could still be connected to the event or the person involved. The witness could just be taking a political standpoint. I agree with Hamill about people can not bear much reality. That is why watching the news is about as much as people can handle of war or natural disasters.
To learn more about Sam Hamill's life, try this website: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/733

Blog Post #3

While reading the poems for this blog assignment, the only title that caught my attention was “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window,” because it is intriguing. While reading this poem, I really enjoyed how it is telling a story, without many phrases that are up to interpretation. However, the line, “They could be a halo, or a storm of glass waiting to crush her” (Harjo, “Woman”) is very interesting because of the word “halo.” The word halo gives off a meaning of an angel or holy, but it is used in the sense to “crush” her, which seems like an oxy moron. As the poem goes along, the speaker in the poem is listing all of the people that care about the woman, almost trying to talk her out of her predicament. The speaker also talks about the woman’s past, and how far she has come from “ate wild rice on scraped down plates in warm wood rooms” (Harjo, “Woman”). The part of the poem I really like is the ending. “She thinks she remembers listening to her own life break loose, as she falls from the 13th floor window on the east side of Chicago, or as she climbs back up to claim herself again” (Harjo, “Woman”). This reveals that she has not jumped yet, but is deciding her fate. She is probably standing out of the window, as people watch her from below. The ending is left mysterious, because we will never know if she jumped or not. However, because the poem says the woman is “hanging,” perhaps she did jump.
The other poem that I registered emotion with is the war poem, “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting.” The reason I liked this poem is because I am beginning to read our assigned book, The Things They Carried. In the story, one of the soldiers is really in love with a woman that is far away, while he is in Vietnam. In this poem, a soldier, during a break in the fighting, quickly writes to a loved one. Even though the language is difficult to interpret, the reader can sense the pain that the soldier is going through. “I tell her in a letter that will stink, when she opens it” (Powers, “Letter”). I interpret this as him wishing that he could send a clean note to her, but he is stuck in the war, without any means of cleanliness. This must irritate him, because he says “I tell her I love her like not killing,” (Powers, “Letter”) therefore he would much rather be home with her than killing people.

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For help with interpreting poetry, view
http://www.webster.edu/~armbruka/engl1030/handouts/interpretpoem.htm

Summary v. Analysis!