Final Blog

I feel like I have improved in many aspects of my writing since the beginning of the semester.  I feel like I do a better job with organizing my ideas.  I do not have as much trouble with writer's block this semester, because I was taught many brainstorming tricks that have helped me a lot.  The brainstorming strategies have been the most helpful because once I have the idea; I do not have trouble finding things to go along with it.  The paper that was the easiest to complete was the paper about "The Little Mermaid" because I was writing the paper about a topic I thoroughly enjoyed.  I think it was the easiest because it was the most fun.  Both the gists and the vocab were the most beneficial lessons for me.  The gists because it helped me apply what I have learned and read so I was actually absorbing the information.  The vocabulary lessons were beneficial as well because now there are a lot of fun new words I can use in conversation if I feel like sounding smart.  I absolutely feel like I am more prepared with my college-level papers.

Poetry Packet

The poem or song that stood out the most to me was the song "Sold" John Michael Montgomery.  The reason this song stuck out to me, was because it was one of my favorite songs from my childhood.  I did not realize it was the song until after I heard it.  When I was little my older sister and I would dance or do gymnastics to this song and perform it for my parents.  Of course, I did not know the correct name for the song.  I always called the blonde hair blue eye song because that is the line that always stuck out to me.  I loved it when the part came up because I had blonde hair and blue eyes and I just thought it was so cool that it mentioned that in the song.

So when listening to the song, I knew it sounded familiar, but I was not sure why.  As soon as I heard him sing "She's got Ruby red lips blonde hair blue eyes and I'm about to bid my heart goodbye" I suddenly remembered dancing and putting on a show for my parents.  I actually got really excited because I just loved that part of my childhood.  At that time it was just my older sister and me, no little brother or sister.  And I loved that.  After hearing the song, I actually had to call my dad to make sure it was the right one and it was.  So of course, I get something a little different out of the song that others might not get.

"The Flea"

When I read "The Flea", I was a little confused to what the meaning was exactly, but the way I interpret it, it says that marriage is evil and it can suck the life out of a person.  I get this from many lines in the text.  "Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee" and "The flea is you and I" are two quotes that make me think this.  The first quote is saying that marriage sucks the life out of both of the people.  And the second one is saying that each person is the flea in the relationship; not necessarily the marriage itself.

Poetry

In high school, we had a poetry unit every year; Freshman through Senior year.  Each year we would learn more diverse and complex poems.  I actually enjoy poetry, I think it is a nice way to express feelings in a deep way.

In high school I was in Oral Interp and I actually did poetry for my sophomore and junior year and placed numerous times and even placed first in a tournament.  I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what poetry is and how to interpret it.

In Class Discussion 3-23

I enjoy the view thing that we do, it helps me understand the material more.  In class on Wednesday, we actually talked about a lot of different things.   But the one thing that stood out to me was the idea of a falling of a person precedes their damnation.  This is very interesting to me, not necessarily because this is what happens to Faustus, but also this is shown in a lot of other literature.  It works well with this story because Faustus was very high up and well known, but once he sold his soul to the devil, that is when he began to fall and this helped lead him to his damnation.

Class Discussion

With the in class discussion, the thing I found very interesting was the idea of the internal and external conflict with Faustus.  Right away in the beginning, Faustus seems dead set with this is what I want!  But then over the course of the play, you can see that internally he is having a struggle and at times it seems to drive him a little crazy.  The angels help with this internal conflict.  With the external conflict, it is not as noticeable, but there are many people that warn Faustus, which kind of start the internal conflict as well.

Scene 5

I had to read scene five a few times in order to finally understand what was going on.  At least, I have a feeling I now know what is going on.  I am aware that Faustus signed his soul over to the devil.  I find it really weird that this does not haze him.  It does not bother him by any means.  I don't know about Mephistopheles, I have a feeling he tries to warn Faustus, but Faustus will not really listen.

Compared to other scenes, I feel this one was not too difficult.  I was a little confused on something in my book.  I have the older book, and on page 23 it says, "What? walking, disputing, &c."  What does that mean exactly?