Angelica’s Comments (group member since Jan 28, 2009)

Angelica’s comments from the Curie World Lit: Only The BEST group.

Ms. Plechaty teaches under many different schools. One of the schools that I remember her teaching under was feminist. We were reading "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Huston in class, and I remember she focused a lot on Janie. Janie was the main character of the story. She was thin, light skinned, and had beautiful long hair. Janie was married, but she wasn't really happy. Once her husband died, she decided to cut her hair. It was the beginning of a new woman. A woman that wasn't tied down to a man anymore and who was independet. By comparing what feminist means and what happens with Janie you can see Ms. Plechaty wanted her class to understand the meaning of feminist.

Im not really sure what literary school my past English teachers have focused on. But, I believe that my American Literature teacher, Ms. P., focused on Archetural Criticism. We read "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Husrton. In this novel, Janie Crawford, one of the main characters, is described as a very pretty gir. She has this beautiful long hair, she's thin, and she's light skinned. At one point in the novel, Janie cuts her hair. Throughout the novel we would have class discussion about what surrounded Janie. i believe we focused a good amount of time trying to understand why Janie would do such a thing. We would come up with conclusions on what it meant for her, and what it might have meant for us. Seeing that we focused a lot on symbols, patterns, people, and icons, I would have to say that her literary school would have to be Archetural Criticism.

The title "Metamorphosis" is drawn by all of the characters obvious changes through out the story. Kafka wrote, " They were performing to the hilt all that the word demands of poor people" (Kafka 40). The Samsa family is now steriotyped an every day poor family. Now that Gragor is unable to do anything for himsef, the Samsa family now work, worry about money, clean, cook, and especially look out for themselves. All of these things being done is what "society demands" from the ordinary family. If Gregor had not gone through such a dramatic change then the other characters wouldn't have either. Every one of the characters had a change as the story went on.

Kafka talks about Gregor's sister and mother as being weak. Kafka writes, "Gregor now heard how the two weak women moved the old wardrobe, heavy as it was, from its place, and how the sister constantly undertook the greater part of the work, paying no heed to the warnings of the mother, who feared she would overexert herself" (Kafka 33). Kafka uses these words to realte them to the women in his time. Women didnt have a voice in society during the time kafka was alive. By Kafka describing Gregor's sister and mother as "weak", he takes their voice away. Kafka, as well, takes Gregor's voice away by converting him into a bug. The only person in the story that seems to have a saying in anything is Grogor's father. Gregor being the supporter of the family didn't really give him any power.

I agree with Josua when he says that a person having such great pressure from society can sometimes alienate themselves from the rest of the world. A person can also have uncertainty about themselves. This uncertainty can be caused from loosing control over their lives, having no power over one's self. Franz Kafka, author of "The Metamorphosis", writes, "His numerous legs, pitifully thin in comparison to the rest of his grith, flickered helplessly before his eyes" (Kafka 11). Kafka decribes Gregor's legs as "pitifully thin", which can mean many different things to each of its readers. This type of literature can be cosidered as Modernist Literature because it captures the reality of modern life in both form and content.

I believe the short story, "The Story of an Hour," shows how Mrs Mallard actually felt about marriage. Mrs Mallard felt trapped and the reader can see that by her reaction towards her husband's death. She feels a sense of relief, a feeling of freedom from her entrapment. Mrs Mallard never could never actually act on her feeling of freedom because that feeling only came out when she was locked inside her room looking through her "open window."