Nancy’s Comments (group member since Jan 21, 2015)

Nancy’s comments from the Morales 2341 Spring 2015 Class MW group.

Kimberly wrote: "In "Every Day Use" by Alice Walker, I personally dont sympathize with Dee because of the changes she has made to her attitude. I admire Dee because like many women I've known, she has risen out of ..."

I agree with Kimberly because she is right because Dee did better herself, but she also forgot where she came from. I didn't sympathize with Dee because she even changed her name, she was so ashamed of her past and that made her mother sad and also Maggie. Those kind of actions reflect on what type of person Dee really is, she didn't care about her family, she only worried about herself.

In the story "Every Day Use" by Alice Walker, me as a reader don't sympathize with Dee because of the kind of person she is. At the beginning all she could think of was leaving her house. Then she had a good education and made a good progress in life. I noticed that she was kind of embarrassed of her past when in the story it says, "She wrote me once that no matter where we "choose" to live, she will manage to come see us. But she will never bring her friends." By reading that we can conclude that Dee didn't wanted for her circle of friends from the different society to see where she came from. There is always the good and the bad sister in the family. In this case, Maggie is the good sister that even though her mother promised that she would give her the quilts, she told Dee that she could keep them. I think Maggie did that because she didn't wanted her mother to keep arguing with Dee, and also because she had a good heart since the beginning of the story.

Kimberly wrote: "In "The Overcoat” by Nikolai Gogol, Akaky Adadievich is a man who is not recognized by the people that surround him until he changes the way he dresses. He had an old raggy coat and when it became ..."


I agree with Kimberly because people do judge by the looks of other people. The short story is related to real life. This is the type of society we live now in this days. Poor Akaky, he was a hard working man, but because of his appearance he was invisible to the others.

In the short story "The Overcoat" the author Gogol is describing a man named Akaky Adadievich. He was a regular man that was dressed with an old coat. When he changes his appearance and wears a new coat, he is finally visible and noticed by people. This describes how society is now a days. People in this days care only about looks. There is different types of classes depending on how you dress or how you look. They can see a wealthy person walking by, but if they are not dressed appropriately, they can easy judge them by saying they are poor and just turn their faces at them. But if they see a person dressed nice and with a nice car or stuff like that, they immediately want to talk to them or hang out with them because they can determine that they have money. This is society and that is not a good thing because that is also discrimination.

The short story "The Flea" talks about how the author describes a flea sucking up blood from a man and a woman and comparing it to having sex. It describes how this little flea is sucking up the blood first from him and then from her. When the author says in the story "it sucked me first, and now sucks thee, and in this flea our two bloods mingled be," I think he is describing that by sucking blood from both of them, they would be more united and it would make like just one of them. They would have sex and it would make the lover's relationship stronger.

Scarlett wrote: "Esperanza lives with her latino family and are used to moving from home to home. She grew up in a large family and seems as poverty was no stranger to them. Though the family doesn't have much one ..."


Scarlett is right. It must have been very difficult for her to live in this conditions being a young Latina. She was the one that overthink everything and was the one that was seeing the real thing. Her parents were her motor of life and her motivation to move forward and become successful in life.

Kimberly wrote: "Esperanza from "The House on Mango Street" is a young latina girl who is unsatisfied about the house she is living in. Growing up she remembers well the many times she and her family moved houses, ..."

I agree with Kimberly when she states that “as a child you shouldn’t be worried about where you live, but she does because latino/as usually come from a low or middle class that makes them be aware of their status,” Esperanza was not comfortable at all with her living status. When they finally found a house that they would not pay rent, she was hoping for the house to be like her mother said it was going to be. It was obvious that she was not satisfied when she had to point the house to the nun.

Esperanza from "The House On Mango Street" is a little Latina girl who dreams of having the house that her mom and dad talked about as she narrated in the short story, "And our house would have running water and pipes that worked. And inside it would have real stairs, not hallway stairs, but stairs inside like the houses on T.V. and we'd have a basement and at least three washrooms so when we took a bath we wouldn't have to tell everybody. Our house would be white with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence. This was the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket and this was the house Mama dreamed up in the stories she told us before we went to bed." This description shows how this girl was unsatisfied with the house that they lived in. She was a girl that had a numerous family and this was hard for her to be moving houses each year because she could not point to a house that would call it her own place. This story describes how immigration is difficult to people and it also shows that Esperanza came from a middle class.

I believe that in this poem shows how death is escorting the speaker to paradise. "We passed the school where children strove," i think this line shows how death is taking the speaker through every stage of his life. Death is something natural that will happen to all of us. This poem is describing how the speaker is accepting his own death in a very good way, unlike other people that just don't want to die or something like that.

I agree with the first statement that says “Prufrock… epitomizes the frustration and impotence of the modern individual; a modern, urban man who feels isolated and incapable of decisive action. He represents the thwarted desires and modern disillusionment.” I agree with this statement because the poem describes a person that is isolated and that his life has no meaning. It also emphasizes the frustration and impotence of this individual. Prufrock has no friends and is an antisocial person who doesn’t like to be bothered. It is true that he is a modern individual that is incapable of decisive action. By everything that he is saying we can come out with the conclusion that he doesn’t care about anything.

Although Mr. Wright was not a bad person and he “didn’t drink, kept his word and paid his debts,” he had no right to kill the bird, if it was him that did it, because that was the only thing left for Minnie Wright to be happy. She loved to sing and I think that was the reason to have that canary. In the play, it doesn’t say exactly that Mr. Wright killed the bird and it also doesn’t exactly say that Minnie Wright killed Mr. Wright, but from all the clues that we read, we can make our own conclusions. I think Minnie Wright was guilty of murdering her husband because she was the only one around when that happened, but there was not enough evidence to prove it. At the beginning I didn’t know what the reason for killing Mr. Wright was, but after the ladies found the canary, it was clear for me that Minnie Wright killed Mr. Wright because of the bird. But even though if Mr. Wright killed the bird, we cannot compare it to Minnie Wright that killed him. If she is found guilty she deserves to be in jail, but at least she got revenge for her canary.

Alicia wrote: "Evelyn had the opportunity to change her life to a pleasant future but decided to stay. The choice she made was not wise. In the beginning of t story, I imagine her with a troubled and tired. How c..."

I agree with Alicia because Evelyn was afraid of trying new things just because she didn't wanted to leave her family. Frank offered her something new and in a different place, but she didn't wanted to because of all that she would have to leave behind.

I think Eveline did not make the right decision by staying. “Strange that it should come that very night to remind her of the promise to her mother, the promise to keep the home together as long as she could.” Eveline wanted to start a new life, but she couldn’t because she had made a promise to her mother. That is how she decided to stay, she was sitting by the window that evening remembering all the happy moments that she had lived there with her family. “Perhaps she would never see again those familiar objects from which she had never dreamed of being divided.” Eveline did had in mind leaving their family to start a new life with Frank by being his wife, but she had very present every happy moments with her family and that was much stronger. “She felt her cheek pale and cold and, out of amaze of distress, she prayed to God to direct her, to show her what was her duty.” She didn’t know what to do, if to stay or not, but at the end she just let him go without her. I think that was not a good idea because she had an opportunity to have a new life, but she was stopped by her family and mostly by the memories that she had with them.

Alicia wrote: "I think that Browning’s intentions in writing this poem is to entertain the reader because he talks about an obsessive love, society issues, sensuality, and horror. The mood in the beginning of the..."

I agree that this was a romatic poem that took another path because I never thought that he was going to end up strangling Porphyria.

In my opinion, I think Browning’s intention in writing this poem was to entertain the reader with a love poem by describing how one person can be so obsessed with another one. He started by introducing the weather of the poem, and he also introduced Porphyria. This poem confused me because at first Browning describes how he is in love with Porphyria but then, why would he want to kill someone he loves? I think Porphyria cheated on him and he was trying to figure out what to do to retain her. Then when he said “That moment she was mine, mine, fair,” I understood that if she wasn’t going to be only for him, she was not going to be for anyone else, that’s how much he loved her. Porphyria’s lover was too obsessed with her and found out that by strangling her, Porphyria was going to stay by his side forever. “And thus we sit together now, And all night long we have not stirred, And yet God has not said a word!” he said at the end of the story when he finally had Porphyria all for him and for no one else. This poem entertained the reader by describing what things an obsessed person can do to keep their loved ones.

Kimberly wrote: "To start off, I am just completely in shock on how this story turned out to be. Never did I imagine of such horrible tradition, I expected a prize as in money for who ever was lucky enough to win i..."

Kimberly has a good point because there is always a way to end the tradition, but the people in the village were afraid to speak up.

Alicia wrote: "In my opinion I believe that the people in the Village are guilty of murder. The story started with an inviting scene. It was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flower..."

I agree with Alicia because I also never imagined that the story would have that kind of turning point.

In the short story, "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, I think that the people in the village are guilty of murder. The story doesn't directly says that they are, but by looking at the scenario and how the story ends, we can all make our own conclusions. Before reading the story I imagined that there was going to be a winning lottery ticket and that someone was going to be the lucky one to have it, there was a winner but in a wrong way. This story was completely different than what I've imagined. I never imagined that the people would gather around to see who was going to be the next victim to be thrown rocks at till death. They mention in the story that this gathering was a tradition in different villages and many of them had stop doing it, but not this village. This tradition was for all of the people in the village, from the smallest child to the head of the house. When they announced the winner, the head of the house, all of their family would participate and at the end one of them would have to sacrifice. Mrs. Hutchinson would have never imagined that this year would be her family that would be the lucky winner of the lottery, she says“Wouldn't have me leave m’dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe?” after arriving late to the gathering. I think that was a bad idea because it says that the village was growing, but they were getting rid of one villager every year. Some people would think of it as fun because they were not the ones that would have to sacrifice. That is why I think the people in the village were guilty of murder.

Kimberly wrote: "An archetype example that is very present in my life right now is Disney movie Frozen. Disney is overrated but it is the perfect example of an archetype. Elsa, one of the protagonists is a hero, a ..."

I like how you describe the examples for the archetypal character. She also was the hero by unfreezing her sister. And you are right, true love doesn't necessarily means from a man, sister love is also important.

Alicia wrote: "Maleficent is the archetypal character in the movie “Maleficent”. At the beginning of the movie she starts as a young happy fairy. Everything looks bright, green and full of life. She does not look..."

At the beginning of the movie Maleficent was a good individual, as Alicia mentioned, then by being betrayed by Stefan she became evil. I like how this is a great example of an archetypal character because after being evil and making the spell to Princess Aurora, Maleficent became the hero by helping the princess to wake up. At the end she wasn't a bad person, she just wanted to take out all the courage that she had.