Response to night women

I read "Night Women" by Edwidge Danticat and I thought it was interesting. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be about. I figured it was about women who got away from their day jobs to be their "real" selves at night. But it's about a single mother who is trying to care for her son by being a prostitute and her fight to not let her boy find out.

Her struggle of being a prostitute kills her, because she hates that she has to do it, which is why "the night is the time [she] dreads most in her life." She tells her son lies and half-truths to protect him from what is really going on. She feels in between a normal "day" person and a normal "night" person. She wants to work a normal job but can't and she hates the job she has.

I love how much she cares for her son that she makes sure he is truly asleep and can't hear what is going on so he grows up like a normal child. She shields him from the ugliness of the world and tries to make sure all he sees and hears are good things. That love makes her a pleasant character.

Overall, I think the story is well written and gives off good ideals. But even though the language is not extremely strong, it still gives off his points in powerful ways. "Night Women" is better than expected.

Response to "The Girl with the Blackened Eye"

The story is all about the narrator. She gives us vision into her story and also the audio to it. Her point of view is the first of the victim, then of an accomplice, then of just of someone looking into the past.

We learn about her character through the different traumatic events that happen to her. When she is abducted we learn she has spirit because she is scared and resisting at first. Then as she is held captive for a length of times she becomes almost like a paralytic. She didn't talk nor did she move much, but if she did it was very slowly. But in the end when she is looking back at all of it she is a completely different person. She shows us that our past doesn't define who we are but how we live our lives in the present does.

The physical conflict versus the psychological conflict is very present. The physical conflict is in this story all of the physical beatings and the rape that happened to her body, but the psychological is what those events and things did to her mind. Her body was showing all those different marks for a short period of time in her life. Lasting maybe a month in the span of time, but the trauma to her mind never went away even though she moved past it. You can tell this because even years after the event she still thinks back to it, As well, she never told anyone about it. Not her husband nor her kids. She keeps it locked away like an old vault that is never to be opened. You know it still affects her because if it didn't she wouldn't mind telling her husband at the very least. But she doesn't. She moved on but never moved past it.

Goldberg part 2

I liked how Goldberg wrote this chapter in such a chronological way. The step by step guide is a very helpful and enlightening way of how to improve my writing. I like how she starts by saying you should write about things you are obsessed with. I never really realized it, but when I'm writing the idea always sprouts from something I'm very interested in at the time. Like how she basically said that if you are interested in something, it will naturally come out in your writing. I never truly understood that until now.

I then like how Goldberg goes from obsessions to having to use details in your writing. Without them your work seems dull and very bland. Details honestly can make a story. They are important pieces of writing that can make even some of the most unrealistic ideas seem plausible to our minds. I liked how she brought up the transporting details part. Just because something is in New York in real life, doesn't mean that if your story takes place in Boston that you can't put that thing in Boston in your story. It doesn't have to be a hundred percent real true facts to be authentic. It just needs to be believable.

The transition from details to the "baking a cake" section was intriguing. She goes from saying details are extremely important to saying that just having details isn't enough. It seemed contradictory when I first read it. But, when I kept on reading it all made sense when she started referring your writing to baking a cake. Details are like the ingredients to the cake but it isn't a cake until it's baked. Your writing needs heat and friction. It needs PASSION. It needs ENERGY. IT NEEDS LIFE!

These things were very eye opening for me. It brought a new level of power and light to writing in my mind. I'm excited to see how these tips will help improve my writing.

Post 4

I read the last three poems in the book Tocqueville.  "On My Mind" started off seeming like it was going to be a somewhat normal poem but by the second stanza that changed. The second through the third stanza had a different form than the rest of the poem, besides the fifth, and seemed kind of crazy and hard to follow. When the fourth and sixth stanzas started the form shifted back to normal and was almost perfectly understandable. It was interesting.

"Trees" was emotion but honestly I don't know why. While it sort of followed in my head, it didn't always make sense. There seemed to be a lot shifting around in the poem and it confused me at times, so I had to re-read multiple sections multiple times. As I previously stated, this poem pulled at my emotions. I got angry, sad, and happy at different times while reading it. It goes to show people don't always have to understand what something is truly about to sense the feelings you are showing or letting go.

Mattawa is a powerful poet to be able to evoke emotions like he does. I was quite impressed with this book and him. My eyes will be kept open and searching for more of his work. I look forward to when I find it.

Post 3

I read Mattawa's Tocqueville. The first couple poems I read were strange and different. They didn't come across in a bad way, they just didn't make much sense. A lot of them just felt like a lot of words thrown together in a flowing manner. I wasn't too impressed with his work til I came across the poem Tocqueville.

The poem Tocqueville intrigued more than all of the others I read. It did that because it was like another book of poems in a book of poems. Book-ception. But the smaller poems inside Tocqueville felt super emotionally tied and just made me want to keep reading. I just read and read and couldn't stop til I finished.

The language used was powerful and thought provoking. " It just doesn't look like Racism. What do you call it then? A kind of mould, software, bedrock." This quote isn't very long or use massive vocabulary words, but it makes you process what you just read and also uses a lot of emotional pull.

Khaled Mattawa is a good poet who, I am convinced, can write any and all types of poetry.  I am looking forward to reading more of his works in the future.

Post 2

I read Cameron's Right to Write, and it was actually really intriguing.  I enjoyed how she incorporated her own experiences into it so it felt more personal. I was convicted when she started talking about her love of writing, and also about Alan, the teacher. She got him to write every day even when he didn't feel like it and it eventually took him over and his love for writing even lit up him in his day job. I have lost my love of writing for days at a time every once in a while, and I don't get it back for weeks or sometimes even months. I plan to take her plan for Alan into my daily life so my love of writing illuminates my day to day life.

I also re-read the sonnet portion of the packet. Honestly, these poems felt more natural and worth more of my time than the others. The sonnets draw me in, make me feel, and their ideas stick in my head. The rest of the poems are read and done with a few thoughts, like : " Man, that was weird." "Ok, and the point was?" The Shakespearean sonnets struck me as the most inviting and honest poems and that is why I preferred them over the rest.

First Post on Writing Down the Bones

    Reading through J. Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones, I found some enlightenment. I first thought that the reading would be non-helpful and worthless, but I was gravely mistaken. The first thing that spoke to me was her "First Thoughts" section. When she listed the five things we "must commit [ourselves] to" while writing, I realized that I do not normally abide by them. After reading this, I plan to do so. If I were to summarize the five points it would be like this: No matter what keep writing, don't stop for errors, just have the writing flow out of you without thinking. Just go hard at it and don't quit till you are finished.

    Another thing that intrigued me was the fact that she said we need to practice our writing. I had never had that cross my mind. Ever. But after thinking about it, it makes sense. Just like with the sports I played in high school or playing the piano, practice makes perfect. I've decided because of this to make sure I write something at least once a day.

    Goldberg's section about having a list of things to write about surprised me. I normally just write about whatever comes to my mind. But having a list to choose from is smart because whenever a new idea comes to my head I can write it down and finish what I am working on currently. Normally when a new idea flies into my brain, I normally drop whatever I am working on to start this new idea. But with the idea of the list I can finish and do all the ideas that come into my head.

    In the list section, one of her options of things to write about caught my eye.  This option was to write about people you have loved. I never thought about writing about that because it was so personal. But that is why I should because passion can create beautiful masterpieces of work.

   These are the reasons why I am now excited about this semester in this class.