RBC Scholarship Reception

On Tuesday October 29^th, I was invited to a scholarship Reception in the Community Room in the Library. I was actually really excited to meet who was this amazing person that had given me this scholarship. When entering the community room I am given my name tag that contained my name and the name of the Scholarship I had received which was “Dr. Bruce Weekly Scholarship”. I came in and served myself some food that was given and I was looking for a name tag that read Dr. Bruce Weekly but didn't seem to have much luck to find him. After a few minutes I got some help to find my donor. To my surprise it was a very nice lady instead of the man I was searching for. She then later informed me that Dr. Bruce Weekly was her brother that had passed away a few years. She also mentioned how his first school was Richard Bland and then he transferred to VCU to become a Vet and also got his Ph.D in Pharmacology and that he always wanted to give back to the school where he came from. I felt really honored that I got to be one of the people that he donated a scholarship to. I was so glad that I went to this reception, because it really made me feel thankful for what I had received and also have in mind that maybe this can be a goal for me. When I become a doctor do the same and donate a scholarship to the school where I started from. 

Questions asked by Sweeney....

·       What you’ve learned or wish you’ve learned about writing/lit?

-          I have learned to become a better writer, because I feel like the more essays (the more writing in general) the better writer I become. I really enjoy writing a topic of our own. Like the last essay assigned by far. How we’re going to get to write the topic of our choice but we actually get to refer one of the stories we’ve read. I know I’ll like writing this essay because it’ll be a piece of writing that I’ve enjoyed.

·       What you’ve learned about your peers and their writing?

-          I’ve learned that some people really don’t like writing, due to the fact that they simply show it when I’m reading their essays. Some people do really struggle with writing and they don’t stick to one topic they actually talk about anything that will fill the word requirement for assignment.

·       Reflections on Essay 1, Essay 2, anticipation about Essay 3?

-          So far I’ve enjoyed writing essay 1 much more than essay two due to the fact that for essay two we are limited to just ONE story. Also not finding the story all that amusing did not help me when it came to writing this second essay. But I’m actually a little excited about writing essay 3 since first of all we get to choose our own topic even if it means that we have to refer to one of the stories. I much rather refer to one of the stories than just be limited to one story like The Glass Menagerie.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Yellow Wallpaper

As the story began, my first thought was that the house the narrator and her husband were looking through was haunted and the reason was for it being such a nice house and I found it very strange that no one had lived in it in so long. We immediately see that this couple didn’t have a great relationship since the woman becomes very depressed and relies on this one room with the yellow paper. She becomes very fixated and obsessed with this object. She even sees a lady trapped inside it. Do you think that the lady trapped, was actually her? She was basically getting more and more psychotic as the days passed by. Hallucinations was the biggest problem for her, since her imagination drove her more insane and all she wanted to do was stare at the yellow wallpaper. The author was very clever to make us believe that maybe there was something in the wallpaper, an also at the end of the story we find out that John supposedly faints at the end of this story. But many inferences such as her killing her own husband are made. Honestly I feel like she did, the author left it open for our imagination to wonder throughout the story.

The Cask of Amontillado

This reading was very dark and very interesting to read, many questions came to me as I kept going along. First of all how can someone be so vindictive enough to kill someone just because they offended you numerous times? I would understand if he had committed an awful act towards you but not just by saying a few words. Well in this story Edgar Allan Poe mysteriously hides the words that Fortunato had said to Montresor that had offended him a whole lot that it got to the point of assassinating Fortunato.  We could only make assumptions of the insults that Fortunato had said to Montresor; one of them was the way that Fortunato told Montresor that his family used to be very noble, basically stating that they are not noble at all anymore. Another insult I found was that when they were walking towards Fortunato’s death Montresor tells him that he used to be a Mason which is a Fraternity. But of course Fortunato does not believe him since he made a Mason hand gesture and Montresor was not able to recognize it. Why do you think that the author hides the insults that caused Montresor to kill Fortunato?  Why do you think Montresor commits this terrible act towards Fortunato? Do you think it goes far along more than just insults? 

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

I could really connect to the main character in this story, because as young adults we have the mistake of being in relationships that never really work out. When these relationships end, we feel very depressed and upset at all times. We sometimes feel like we cannot continue our lives without them. For the character of this story he had certain anger issues that made him break plenty of lamps when he got upset with his girlfriend. By these actions we could see that this relationship wasn't all that healthy. Maybe ending the relationship was for the better of each individual. Towards the end of this story we get caught on a very important question. Did they end up together? Because his girlfriend did call him to see how he was doing. Does it mean that she still loved him and wanted to be with him? I guess the author wanted us to be caught in the mystery of never knowing what happened. But we did know that he still wanted to be with her, and still had very strong feelings towards her. I liked this story because the main character was a college student that all of us could really connect with. 

How to Become a Writer

For this first reading at the very beginning I thought it was very confusing to understand who the narrator was talking about. I really disliked the fast that the whole story was in Second Person. The whole time it was “you did this” or “you did that” type of writing. It felt like it was talking about what I did, but I didn't relate to this story because who the narrator is talking about is very different of who I am. Like my major is Dentistry instead of child psychology or writing or even law. As I kept reading more and more of the story I just got really annoyed by the big use of second person. It’s overly used to the point where it gets very confusing on what the author is really talking about. Towards the end the story the author basically explains that the student he’s talking about is a confused college student that doesn't know what to do. If to either be a child psychologist or a writer or even a lawyer; this student is beyond confused. Overall I really didn't like this story it was very confusing reading it, and the writing level doesn't seem very intellectual. Hopefully the rest of our stories will be better than this one.