Sunday, April 19, 2009

Death of a Salesman

This was the second time I read Death of a Salesman, and this time I read it more closely and tried to understand it more fully. The first time I read it, I could not understand how Willy died or the purpose of the rubber pipe, although I knew it must have had something to do with attempting suicide. Also, when I first read it, although I could distinguish between reality and hallucination, it was very difficult for me to follow much of the plot. Reading it the second time, I paid more attention to the smaller details and was able to pick up on a lot more, such as how Biff's finding of his father cheating on his mother was the reason he gave up on everything he could have become. The movie was also a great help. It allowed me to give meaning to the words in the text and have a clearer understanding of the plot. Taking into consideration the time period in which it was written and set allowed me to see Willy Loman's struggles and understand why he was feeling so distressed, both about his work and about his son's lack of security. All of these things allowed my second reading of Death of a Salesman to be an enjoyable one.

*When reading my post, please let me know if I have any grammatical errors or if what I am saying somehow does not make logical sense. Thanks.*

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Blogger

Using Blogger for the past few months has been a great experience for me. I prefer Blogger to Google Groups because with Google Groups, if I found that I made an error in my post, I would have to delete the entire post and post it again. With Blogger, I can edit my work over and over again without having to delete my entire post. I also like being able to comment on others' work and to have others commenting on my work. I have become familiar with peoples' writing styles and I have enjoyed reading what these people have to say. I like having others commenting on my work because having some constructive criticism is helpful to me as a writer. The fact that this blogging is between both 11-1 and 11-2 allows me to read and enjoy writings I would have never seen if it were not for Blogger. I think we should continue to use Blogger for the rest of the year and next year.