Friday, May 1, 2009
Class Activity
Today in class, we did a fun activity! I thought it was really fun acting out what was told for us to do on the piece of paper. Before doing this project, I never even thought about these things (posture, hand gestures, etc.) But I did know that id have to the obvious things, such as speaking loud and clearly, keeping your audience entertained and having good eye contact with my audience. I think this project might be a little difficult for me though.. A 10 minute long presentation and I'm still not sure of what topic I'm going to choose yet or how I am going to present it! I have a lot of work to do. I don't even know if I can think of anything to do for that long.. But I have almost two weeks to prepare, so hopefully I think of something!
"05/01/09"
We're finally done with this book! But I must say, I didn't really appeal to me because of the women not getting any rights part. The quote that was given to us for our in class essay even made me mad! Haha.. I felt like Offred was so helpless in that quote. I thought she was saying that she really didn't want to be apart of the salvaging and be hung on the Wall. She would rather allow the government to do whatever they wanted with her instead of dying... She would rather live and be treated as an object than die! Shes crazy! I don't think I'd want to live under those circumstances. I also don't think it's necessary for the government of Gilead to have some kind of a public ceremony where they hang people who have done wrong. Not only is it embarassing, but it must really be hurtful to watch the whole process. But I guess they have to do whatever they have to do in order to keep control of their society.. Oh what propganda does to us!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Chapter 43
We're almost done with this book!
Anyways, the chapter that interested me most from the reading that was due today was chapter 43. I really liked this chapter because I finally get to see that the women stand up for themselves, unlike in most of the other chapters where their power is limited and what not. The women all came together and beat up a man who was convicted for rape. It didn't seem like the first time they did this. It actually seemed like they practice this because after Aunt Lydia blew a whistle, they all go attack the man. I also was surprised at Ofglen's actions because she really just kicked the man's head a bunch of times. Painful, much?!
Onto something else; in class, we've been doing activites on propaganda. I've never knew about all the different types of propaganda there are, such as bandwagon, bad logic, etc., until this activity. I also never knew how often the different types of propaganda are in things in our everyday lives such as TV commercials and online advertisements. And how the propaganda isn't always obvious in commercials.. sometimes you really have to pay attention and listen to what the people are saying because there are a lot of hidden meanings!
Until next time!
Anyways, the chapter that interested me most from the reading that was due today was chapter 43. I really liked this chapter because I finally get to see that the women stand up for themselves, unlike in most of the other chapters where their power is limited and what not. The women all came together and beat up a man who was convicted for rape. It didn't seem like the first time they did this. It actually seemed like they practice this because after Aunt Lydia blew a whistle, they all go attack the man. I also was surprised at Ofglen's actions because she really just kicked the man's head a bunch of times. Painful, much?!
Onto something else; in class, we've been doing activites on propaganda. I've never knew about all the different types of propaganda there are, such as bandwagon, bad logic, etc., until this activity. I also never knew how often the different types of propaganda are in things in our everyday lives such as TV commercials and online advertisements. And how the propaganda isn't always obvious in commercials.. sometimes you really have to pay attention and listen to what the people are saying because there are a lot of hidden meanings!
Until next time!
Late Post.
Today we did an activity in class that we've never done before. It was called, "Think Out Loud" I believe. Well anyway, I thought this activity was pretty interesting. I also thought it helped me understand the text a little better because sometimes when I read, my thoughts get jumbled up with what I read, but since I get to speak out loud, there was no longer any mix up!
Chapter 35 really caught my attention today. One quote that made me think was this one on page 226, "You would look at the man one day and you would think, I loved you, and that tense would be past, and you would be filled with a sense of wonder..."
- I find that interesting because in my opinion, I don't think love can be used in past tense. It's either you love someone, or you never loved them at all. I don't think you can stop loving someone and if you ever think you loved someone, it probably wasn't love at all and it was just pure infatuation.
Also, at the end of this chapter, it talked about Ofglen not being able to use a knife while she ate because she has "manual skills and teeth". That's just another way of how they prevent the women from having any type of power. I admire the women so much for being able to put up with such tough living conditions!
Chapter 35 really caught my attention today. One quote that made me think was this one on page 226, "You would look at the man one day and you would think, I loved you, and that tense would be past, and you would be filled with a sense of wonder..."
- I find that interesting because in my opinion, I don't think love can be used in past tense. It's either you love someone, or you never loved them at all. I don't think you can stop loving someone and if you ever think you loved someone, it probably wasn't love at all and it was just pure infatuation.
Also, at the end of this chapter, it talked about Ofglen not being able to use a knife while she ate because she has "manual skills and teeth". That's just another way of how they prevent the women from having any type of power. I admire the women so much for being able to put up with such tough living conditions!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wikis + Chapters 27-28
So today, we wrapped up on our group Wikis. The discussion/summary questions that we had, made me realize even more about the society in Gilead. I feel bad for the women because in the society, they're "not supposed" to know how to read or write. What they are supposed to know how to do is household chores while the men go out and work, make money and provide for the family. What's up with all these stories that involve women getting little to no rights?! First, in The Left Hand of Darkness, the female pronoun wasn't even used! and now in The Handmaid's Tale, women aren't allowed to be educated! I'm so glad that our society isn't like that. My group also talked about this while working on our Wikis.. the whole "role of domesticity" thing. I mean, there will always be an ideal perception of a wife, but in reality, not all wives have to stay home, clean, take care of the kids, etc. They can have jobs too! It sucks that women aren't really appreciated in the society. The only thing they're wanted for is to have children. They need to learn how to treat women right!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
"The Handmaid's Tale" - Night
This book is starting to get a little bit harder to understand. I feel this way because sometimes, and I really do mean sometimes, Atwood chooses not to use quotation marks. I wonder why she chooses to make only certain peoples' words in quotations and not with the other characters. After the discussions in class on Monday and Tuesday, I learned that the "Marthas" were at home servants.
There is one quote I'd like to speak about from chapter 18:
"But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex. It's lack of love we die from. There's nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere." (pg. 103)
I think it's unfair that they are forced to sleep with men that they aren't interested in and must also bear their baby. It's especially sad because the men already have their own wives, but their wives can't have babies because of certain reasons such as radiation, age, etc. But in my opinion, I don't think that's an excuse to force someone else to have sex with you. The woman may not even know the man, but they are forced to sleep with him. That's so wrong! I also wonder how the mens' wives feel about that and how the children will feel about it when they grow up knowing that their mom doesn't even love their dad and was just forced to sleep with him. It seems like the females in the society do not live very happy lives. I feel so sorry for them! I don't even want to imagine what it would be like to have to deal with that type of situation.
There is one quote I'd like to speak about from chapter 18:
"But this is wrong, nobody dies from lack of sex. It's lack of love we die from. There's nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere." (pg. 103)
I think it's unfair that they are forced to sleep with men that they aren't interested in and must also bear their baby. It's especially sad because the men already have their own wives, but their wives can't have babies because of certain reasons such as radiation, age, etc. But in my opinion, I don't think that's an excuse to force someone else to have sex with you. The woman may not even know the man, but they are forced to sleep with him. That's so wrong! I also wonder how the mens' wives feel about that and how the children will feel about it when they grow up knowing that their mom doesn't even love their dad and was just forced to sleep with him. It seems like the females in the society do not live very happy lives. I feel so sorry for them! I don't even want to imagine what it would be like to have to deal with that type of situation.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Handmaid's Tale
Before reading this story, I was hoping that it wouldn't be as confusing as The Left Hand of Darkness and that it wouldn't have any weird made up vocabulary to add more to the confusion. So far, I've finished reading the first section of the story (up to page 33) and I am kind of confused. I don't really understand what type of living conditions they are in. I'm also still wondering who the "Marthas" are. I think that the society in this book is sort of reaching towards a Utopia because of how they separate the males from the females.
Here's a few quotes I'd like to talk about:
"As we walk away, I know they're watching, these two men who aren't yet permitted to touch women. They touch with their eyes instead and I move my hips a little, feeling the full red skirt around me." Pg. 22
- For some reason, they don't allow some men to have any type of physical interaction with females. I guess it's their way of "protecting" the females? I also thought it was mean for her to be teasing those men, but I guess it's also funny too.
"She's a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire, we covet her." Pg. 26
- This quote is when the women at the market notice that there is a pregnant woman there. I think they're envious of her because they don't have any men, therefore they aren't able to become pregnant like her. I still wonder what status or ranking do they have to be in order to even talk to a man. This is confusing! But hopefully as I continue reading the book over the break, it'll become clearer to me.
Until next time!
Here's a few quotes I'd like to talk about:
"As we walk away, I know they're watching, these two men who aren't yet permitted to touch women. They touch with their eyes instead and I move my hips a little, feeling the full red skirt around me." Pg. 22
- For some reason, they don't allow some men to have any type of physical interaction with females. I guess it's their way of "protecting" the females? I also thought it was mean for her to be teasing those men, but I guess it's also funny too.
"She's a magic presence to us, an object of envy and desire, we covet her." Pg. 26
- This quote is when the women at the market notice that there is a pregnant woman there. I think they're envious of her because they don't have any men, therefore they aren't able to become pregnant like her. I still wonder what status or ranking do they have to be in order to even talk to a man. This is confusing! But hopefully as I continue reading the book over the break, it'll become clearer to me.
Until next time!
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