The things they carried self appointed topic

One thing I noticed in the story is Lieutenant Cross’s connection to his lesser. It could be said that although he did not connect emotionally with them since he was distracted by Maria, but rather that the squad symbolised Cross as a person. For example Henry Dobbins big size and masculinity symbolised Cross’s authority over the whole group, whereas Ted Lavender symbolised coping, fear and overall weakness that Cross had by using Maria.

               Each man in a squad has specific roles and has to work together almost as if they are one person. That one person is the leader of the squad and in this case is Lieutenant Cross. As such, each man represents one part as Lieutenant Cross. To star we have Rat Kiley, the medic. He is the one in charge of keeping everyone alive, and yet he was helpless to save Ted. This symbolises Lieutenant Cross’s responsibility to take care of his men and failure to keep Ted Lavender alive due to lax leadership. Then going back to Henry Dobbins as a big masculine and tough person, it symbolises the rigidity a man needs in order to lead his men. Then there is Lee Strunk who carried a slingshot, a childish weapon, as a last resort weapon. This childish ‘weapon’ also called a toy symbolises the teams childish less disciplined and even reclusive nature, as well as Cross’s lack of strict rule.

               The last man that is important to symbolise is Ted Lavender. He was the most scared out of all the soldiers in the squad. He tried to cope with the war through dope and tranquilisers. He was a symbol of fragility and was a catalyst into turning Cross into the man he became through his death. For what Ted symbolised to Cross was coping. For before Ted died Cross used his daydreams and mementoes from Maria to cope with the war situation. When Ted died that coping mechanism died with him and a new stricter way to cope with the war formed in Cross’s mind and it showed in his actions towards his men.

350

conventional versus the unconventional

This story is confusing. It is confusing because of the controversial and nonsense tales that the substitute, Miss Ferenczi, tells. Conventional means, in a sense, that it is normal or generally accepted, so i guess her stories are considered such. How such unconventional stories combines with the conventional would be picking at straws, however there is a sense of connection between her generally unacceptable stories to the generally accepted minds of youngsters. for instance, people accept that young kids have good imagination, but do not accept that gryphons exist, yet here the two mix. more to the point it is the 6x11=68 debacle that truly signifies this relationship of her stories to child mentality.
there is also a sense that the unconventional is fleeting and brief. this is viewed as Miss Ferenczi only being a substitute teacher, only a brief replacement whereas Mr Hibler is the actual teacher and even at the end it goes from the fantastical back to the norm, "when Mr. Hibler would certainly return and test us on our knowledge" (56 Baxter).

Fail and Foreshadow

There was one time in my life not so long ago that i had a pretty bad fail. I went into math to write a test that needed a calculator, and forgot the calculator. Not sure how foreshadowing works in real life, but i can think of previous incidents that i warned of such incident to come. first was the continual forget fullness of stationary that i had earlier due to a little bit of early school stress. also i had in some cases forgotten my calculator not long before that day, but did not need them for that day. and the biggest was my ego. i was so sure of my knowledge and intelligence and knew how to do all the work, but not without a calculator. so it was quite humbling to forget something as menial as that.

The author W. D. Wetherell  put in many cases foreshadowing such event of failure. one such statement was "I think fishing is dumb" (38 Wetherell). That case is a profound statement in the foreshadow of failure, since the protagonist loved fishing so much. as said by the protagonist "when I wasn't doing doing any of things, I was fishing the river for bass" (37 Wetherell) which indicates fishing is is main pastime. also it's apparent that her mind is on other boys "Eric Caswell's going to be there, he strokes number four"(ibid) saying she's actually interested in a guy on the rowing team. all this just lead to the final blow where the river escapade ends in fail.

wordle thing full of words

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4115095/english_blog_comments

fish cheeks, why the "s"

Amy tan's story Fish Cheeks is one of humiliation and embarasment in front of her crush at that time. Takes place at dinner time where an assortment of chinese dishes are laid out for the visiting pastor's family and the Tan family. the prolem arises due to difference in culture, the american family to the chinese family. this difference in culture between Amy and her crush causes her to get really embarassed when her family is expressing table manners fround on by the americans but very polite in chinese culture. the title comes from one of the dishes given, fish. a whole fish was offered at the dinner table and the cheek comes in where they mention loudly that the fish cheek was her favourite part of the fish, singular. so why is it that the title is plural, all the dishes n the table were her "fish cheeks". she said at the end that upon reflection that all the dishes given that night were her favourite, her fish cheeks. 

Malcolm X versus Langston Hughes in tone

In Malcolm X's story there seems to be a lot of anger and regret about his past actions and gives a sort of feel that he would change the past if he could. He gives this feeling mainly at the end of his story but does use picturesque descriptions of the stupidity and pain that so many blacks went through to be recognised as equal. the main way he would convey the pain is using pain full descriptions like,"the comb felt like it was raking my skin off". This description on its own sounds painfull as is and is enough to really get the pain he went through. there is also the case of angry reminiscence in the last paragraph explaining how stupid he was and also how he continued to put himself through pain even after that day. this tone is effective in gaining sympathy and a sense of the horrors that people put themselves through due to the actions of racists.

Langston Hughes gives a more witty and clever tone. the kind of tone one would take on in an essay when they are trying to prove a point, except this is not an essay but slightly satirical, and anti racist poem. i say satirical because he is using the idea of racism and the idea that blacks are different to white and playing with that notion to use to sway white peoples opinions of the blacks. especially near the end when he directly states out to his instructor that he's talking to him, saying how alike they both were regardless of skin colour. this tone is playful and clever, and very calm. is gives a relaxing feel so that the person doesn't feel overly outraged and as if they are being attacked. this tone is best at making a calm before the storm kind of feel. and it really hits home for the racists how equal the two are.

Malcolm Little and Langston Hughes

After reading "hair" by Malcolm Little and "poem for English B" by Langston Hughes one can make a comparison and a contrast between the two writers. Both these men are writers who were black during a time in U.S history where blacks were not viewed as equal to the whites. they seemed to both be highly aware of the situation that they're in and are trying to deal with the hardship that comes in a time like this. they both are trying to get the publics attention to this so that it can be fought by a larger group of people. where they differentiate is in style, time and reaction. the time in which Langston writes his poetry is as it happens. He would have an experience and get home and start writing about it. Malcolm, however , only writes his stories later in life and not as poetry but as a memoir of events that happened to him during those times. Another way they differ is in their type and style of writing. Langston uses poetry to convey his thoughts and by looking at how he writes it comes off as aggressive, as if he's trying to fight the opinion and change the mindset of the whites. Malcolm writes stories as memoirs and is using it to rather gain sympathy for is actions and show how truly wrong it was to do what they did to make him try to become them. and lastly their reactions to the time. Langston seemed more of  a fighter and would fight for his rights and would use the written word in order to get his point across. Malcolm was more of a conformist and would rather try to become more like them, even if it didn't work.

In any Other Name

I believe that Santha is saying that it is possible for a person to try and have their two personalities, but they will always return to the original personality regardless. In other words you can have two personalities but the fake one will disappear and just leave who you truly are in the end. this is seen at the very end of the story where Santha says "it all happened to a girl named Cynthia, and I was never particularly interested in her" meaning she had two personalities but her real and original one was the one she cared for and kept in the end. So you can try to have more than one personality but your original will win in the end.

I think that people can have two personalities, not identities, but personalities. this is most commonly seen in a house versus a school setting where people react to family or friends different to each other. this is seen in the story where Santha seems more at ease and outwards at home, compared to having fewer interactions at school. this is due to an environment surrounded by foreigners and a foreign type of schooling. this is seen through actions like when at home she plays with the cook's son, talks more with her mother and her sister. when she is at school she has a more introverted personae with her one friend Nalini, she keeps away to the British children due to their hostile nature towards Indians.