Joe’s Comments (group member since Jan 08, 2009)

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

The teacher I thought swayed toward a certain literary school is,Mrs.Morales, my freshman year Survey Literature teacher,and to me she swayed toward Archetypal Criticism.The reason I believe this is due to the fact that we did numerous assignments that involved a picture and finding clues to what the pictures mean.We did an assignment called "Slip Or Trip",and it was a man who was on the stairs laid out with his wife standing next to him with a shocked look on his face.This assignment wanted us to figure out what really happened to the man,did he slip on the stairs or did he get tripped.We also focused on the people around them,and how they looked.The wife didn't seem that upset,and that could be a symbol of here being the villain.The archetypal symbol could be that she is a deceiver,like most villains are.In her class we did numerous assignments that involved universal symbols,that is why I believed she may favor Archetypal Criticism.

I believe that besides Gregor's transformation,the father has went through his own change. In the beginning of the book,we learn that Gregor is provider as far as money for the family. We also learn that the father is making Gregor go to work but is not working himself,but through this horrible situation Gregor is going through we see the father slowly changing himself. The father is depicted early as lazy and a man "Who would lie wearily,buried in his bed" (Kafka 37). Then when Gregor stares at his father face to face we see how much of a change he has gone through, "...he was perfectly erect, dressed in a tight blue uniform with gold buttons, like those worn by messengers in banking houses" (Kafka 37). I believe that the transformation the father has gone through was basically forced upon him since Gregor could no longer provide for the family.Someone had to fill that void, and its only right that the man of the house(GENDER ROLES) would take that role. So if Gregor did not go through his transformation, the father would have never gone through his.

While reading "The Metamorphosis" I didn't get a sense that Kafka makes women seem less than men,but rather a sense that Kafka puts men in a dominant role. We see this when Gregor has the duty of taking care of the debt for his family. Even though the father is not fulfilling his role as leader of the family,we still see Gregor going to work and providing for his family. We see this when Gregor's mother says,"Gregor...it's six forty-five. Didn't you intend to make a trip?"(Kafka 13). Gregor's mother immediately jumps on Gregor about not waking up and going to work,because he is the breadwinner for the family,and they survive off his earnings. I believe that Kafka just feels that men should take care of the family and not women,also the way the father is portrayed as not being responsible for his family,we see how Kafka puts the spotlight on Gregor's father for not fulfilling his duties. Even through this we still see that Gregor's father is ultimately in charge of the family, by the way he way he commands Gregor to go to work.

I do believe that Kafka is indeed following Modernist ideas. We are able to tell that Kafka is following Modernist ideas by the first sentence in the story. "When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning, he found out that he had been transformed in his bed into a enormous bug" (Kafka 11). We see how Kafka uses Modernist ideas by creating a story that was new and different by getting rid of an exposition. In the beginning of most books you would usually have an introduction of the character/s, but in "The Metamorphosis" Kafka went directly into the action. So I believe that with this quote we can definitely see how Kafka follows Modernist ideas.

I believe that the "Story of An Hour" tried to show how Mrs.Mallard was trapped in her marriage in a nice way,but ended up sounding bad.At first Mrs.Mallard was sad that her husband had just died and was in a stage of deep depression,then as the story moved on,her attitude gradually changed.Our class thesis was to show the "entrapment" of women,but i believe that Chopin's story failed to show the entrapment of women.I don't understand how a positive situation could come from a spouse dying. The way the author presented the message of the story was horrible. If Mrs.Mallard was immediately happy after her husband died then i could realize how she could have been "entrapped" but to be sad and then be happy out of no where after your spouse just died, was the wrong way to present the message.

After Barack Obama won the democratic nomination I immediately thought that he would win the presidency. I have the utmost confidence in President Obama's decision making. His compelling speaches always catch my attention, and his tone and speaking style demands focus from people,but this is the world of politics so I don't immediately get my hopes up on politicians. Seeing a black man win the presidency has made me feel proud to be a young black man. This is still a very shocking moment to me because I thought that I would never see a black person become president. I know Barack will do everything in his power to help fix America's problems,BUT I hope people don't think he will solve EVERYTHING. He is not superhuman and cannot solve everyone's issues. I believe America should stand behind our president and have faith in the decisions he makes.

In the beginning i believe the mother was just telling her daughter a set of rules and things to learn as she becomes a woman.Towards the middle she started to sound cruel in her remarks butI believe that the mother's remarks had good intent,but it came out in a bad way.She just wanted her daughter to become a nice person and not end up being bad as she stated.