For the most part I am terrible at interpreting poems and class on Friday definitely let me know that I am worse than I thought. The Underground Stream was the most confusing poem out of the James Dickey poems for me to interpret. I think this was because we didn’t have the end of the poem to let us in on the details about the brother but regardless it was difficult to understand. Hearing the ending of the poem gave me a better understanding of why the poem was written and how it should really have been interpreted. Let’s see if I understand this a little bit better.
The poem is about the guilt that the narrator has concerning his brother’s death. When Dickey describes this smile and the long and drawn out journey that it takes makes me think that maybe it took the narrator a long time to finally be able to get over the death of his brother and also finally be able to smile. It kind of shows the reader that he is not completely over the death of his brother and that he feels guilty about something concerning the death. The smile is portrayed as being mysterious which helps the reader to understand that the smile was hard to reach and that the narrator has nothing to smile about anymore. The overall tone of the poem is gloomy and melancholy. Towards the ending of the poem the tone switches from gloomy to more intense tone. We as the readers can see that the narrator is beginning to realize that his brother is dead and he shouldn’t be feeling guilty about his death in any way. Once I finally understood all of the subtleties and just what exactly the poem was supposed to mean, I actually liked it. I like the overall subject of the poem because everyone can relate to it. I felt the same way that the narrator felt when my grandfather died.

I, like most likely everyone else in the class do not understand poetry. I really can’t interpret what the poet is trying to say and when I do it is always way off base and doesn’t make sense, but I’m going to take a stab at some of these poems just for fun.
The first poem, Sleeping Out at Easter discouraged me from reading any of the ones that followed, but here’s how I interpreted it and please don’t poke fun. There was a common reoccurrence of the word light so I knew that there was something there to be interpreted.
-Line 2 “This forest is drawing a light.”
-Line 10 “A light has told them their song.”
-Line 19 “A light should come round the world,”
-Line 33 “For the King’s grave turns him to light.”
-Line 46 and 48 “For the King’s grave turns you to light.”
I saw this light as representing a calling, or something that needs to be accomplished by someone. The calling I thought could have been a need for a change in the way a person lives their life. For instance line 39 states, “Of a father returning from darkness,” and I saw this father figure as being the person who saw this “light” and turned his life around. He changed his lifestyle and in a sense went from bad to good. Another thing that was repeated numerous times was this talk about the king’s grave. In line 48 it says, “For the king’s grave turns you to light.” I couldn’t figure out what it could possibly stand for but I know that whatever it is it helps people change their bad behavior into good behavior. So overall when a person sees this light and the king’s grave they change their lifestyles to make the dead king happy? I hope this is remotely close.
The next poem that I decided to live life dangerously and try to interpret was The Underground Stream. This one, I think is about a person who is unhappy because it takes the person a long and drawn out time to get a smile. It has to go down the well, through the stones, in the water, and back up through the ground. It just seems like it takes too much to get this person to be able to smile and that saddens me because smiling is great. Also I noticed that “light” was used in this poem to in line 15, “Of the world, of light, and of me.” I don’t really know whether it is supposed to mean the same thing as in Sleeping Out at Easter, but I do know he loves “light”. James Dickey, in this poem used some pretty interesting word usage. I loved this part of the poem, “And the smile I filtered through stone motionless lie, not murmuring but listening only, and hearing my image of joy flow down.” I love when poets make things seem alive and like they have person-like qualities. For instance, the smile being able to hear, it just makes the smile seem so be human and have human characteristics and I love that kind of writing.
I don’t know whether any of this makes sense, it most likely does not but like I said before poetry is not my strong point.

If you compared the movie A Streetcar Named Desire with the actual playwright you would see that there are many differences between the two, mostly with the characters. In the actual play that we read in the book, the characters did not seem as dramatic as they were portrayed in the movie I think that this was because while I was reading the play I had to imagine what they could have done and how they could have reacted, and in the movie we got to see how the characters really were.
Blanche to me seemed more insane in the movie than she did in the play. For instance when she was playing dress up in all of her riches and pretending to be at some fancy party she was definitely fit for a straight-jacket. We saw a completely different side to her. Another part of the movie where I noticed something wasn't right in that head of hers was when Mitch came over to see her and she was acting really frazzled while she was looking for something to drink. This also made her seem like a full blown alcoholic. In the reading it does really make Blanche out to be that much into drinking because she always said things like, "I never touch the stuff." The playwright never really made her out to be insane as much as the movie did. Another thing about Blanche was that she appeared to have a thing for Stanley that I never really picked up on while reading the play. In the movie we saw some of the looks that she gave him and she seemed to be giving him the come hither eyes. I feel like Stanley kind of picked up on this and maybe at first he thought that he could have sex with her but when she resisted he just pushed further because he must have thought she was playing hard to get but she wasn't at all. The movie really brought to life this little quirk about Blanche. In the playwright Blanche appears to hate Stanley more than anything I mean she calls him names makes fun of the way he lives and appears to hate everything about his life and can't see why her sister is married to him. Which is why in the movie it shocked me to see her showing any sort of kindness and even an attraction towards Stanley. Another thing that I noticed was different was the fact that in the book it made Blanche out to be so much better than the city that Stella and Stanley lived in. Although in the movie it seemed as though she fit right in. Also the book didn't make it seem like Blanche stayed with Stella that long but in the movie it seened like she had been living with Stella and Stanley for months. Blanche's character held many differences between the movie and the playwright.
Stella in the movie actually seemed more flirtacious and like she had more control over everything than she did in the play. The way that she came down the stairs after Stanley hit her. She made that man drop to his knees for forgiveness. Oh what I wouldn't give to have that control over men. She came down the stairs really slow and seductive-like and gave him those sex-kitten eyes that in the book I would have never imagined her doing. The book made her out to be this innocent woman who let people walk all over her. This was not the case in the movie. I really grew to give Stella more respect while I watched the movie. She also seemed to stand up to Stanley a lot more in the movie, at times she really rips into him.
Other than these two characters the others seemed to remain the same to me. Mitch seemed like he was portrayed differently except for the fact that in the movie he seemed to stand up to Blanche a lot more. And Stanley never really changed although actually witnessing what he did to Blanche and seeing how he forced himself on her made me hate him but in the book I loved his character because he was the only one who stood up to Blanche and saw her for what she really was.

In A Streetcar Named Desire, I began to develop a major hatred towards the character Blanche. I hate everything about her and yet I can’t help but feel sorry for her at the same time. Her are some things that I hate. She treats Stella like a maid and makes her do all sorts of things for her and Stella does it without even objecting. Another thing that she does to Stella is she makes her feel like she lives in a life of poverty and in a way makes fun of the life Stella lives. Blanche makes fun of where Stella and Stanley live, Stanley himself, and (in the beginning before Blanche finds out that Stella is pregnant) Stella appearance. I don’t understand how someone who is blood can treat a family member like that. I mean Blanche really lets Stella have it at times and Stella portrays herself as weak by letting Blanche do it. Blanche uses stereotypes to base all of her opinions on people. She calls Stanley common because of the way he looks and the way he acts. Miss Priss also uses his ethnicity to knock him down a few more pegs; she calls him a Pollock which is a terrible ethnic slur to use against someone who is Polish. I just feel like Blanche sees herself as being so above everyone else even though she is the same as them. Her past makes herself seem like a tramp it makes me wonder, what exactly did happen at the Flamingo? It is assumed that she was prostituting of some sort which I can definitely see. The way she acts towards men makes her seem like she thinks she can control men with the drop of a hat. I simply hate the way she thinks that she can have people do anything for her whenever she wants. The whole time I read A Streetcar Named Desire I grew to have such hatred towards Blanche.
On the other hand of this whole Blanche situation I kind of feel bad for her and I can’t believe that I just said that. But I really do feel compelled to feel sorry for her. If you think about everything that she has been through I mean she lost her job (for a disgusting reason), she lost all of her family (minus Stella), she has a drinking problem because of everything that happened, and she feeds off of attention that she doesn’t get. So after everything that has happened to her I feel bad, but only to a certain extent, I mean the girl does treat everyone like dirt on the bottom of her high heeled shoe.

Up to this point in the book we see that Janie doesn't have the best relationships with men. Her former husband Logan Killicks is now out of the picture and Joe Starks has just taken the stage. Joe is the head honcho in the Negro Town and Janie constantly lives in his shadow. He makes sure that Janie doesn't join in any conversations so that the men in town won't find out that she's a great gal. To me we see this type of shadow effect everywhere in political positions. The men who run for these positions are not really thinking about including their wives because they have to worry about the office they're running for and how they can get more votes. So unless women do something to make themselves stand out then they are never really recognized then anything but a pretty face in the background. Which in a way is how it should be, the person running for office whether it be man or woman shouldn't have to worry about their spouse being left out. It sounds terrible but in this case it is true. Joe Starks isn't trying to get his wife recognized also because she happens to be a very beatuiful woman who does actually make sensible comments to conversations. He doesn't want her to show her hair because he wants all of the attention on himself and not on his wife and her long-flowing, beautiful hair. Even with all of this bad treatment that Janie endures from her husband Jody she deals with everything that comes her way pretty well. She works in the store regardless of the fact that she is terrible at math. My favorite event in their entire marriage is when Janie calls out Jody in front of some people in town. I thought it was great that at the end she just exploded and pointed out all of Jody's imperfections instead of the other way around. I loved it! A man like that needed to be put in his place.
After Jody dies Janie kind of moves on and finds out who she really is deep down. She knows that she is a good person who deserves to find love and live a happy life. Tea Cake catches her eye and introduces her to new things and she loves that, what woman doesn't? So just when you think that things between them are perfect, a huge storm comes and washes them away. They are left to deal with living in horrible conditions and horrible situations. When Tea Cake stole her money I was furious I felt like I was in the book I kept thinking, how could he do this to her? After he seemed like the perfect guy he turns out to be this big jerk. My mind was changed when he came home and got all of the money back then he went back to the perfect guy (lol).
One thing that I thought the autho, Hurston, did a great job with was the foreshadowing. She lets the reader know that Tea Cake gets bit and they talk about those eyes that the dog had when he looked at Janie and I love how in the end those eyes coem up again. The ending had me on the edge of my seat I was like, Is she going to kill him? Is he going to kill her? Is anybody going to save her? I loved the entire book I though it had a great storyline and I absolutely loved the main character Janie.

In the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston we see the slave side of slavery instead of the usual southern white plantation owner side. The main character is Janie and her and her Nanny are living with a white family in West Florida. Nanny watches all of the children on the plantation and surprisingly the mother of these children allows Janie to play with the white children on the plantation. I find this weird because usually there is such separation between the two because the white parents don't want their children to be tainted by the black children. Another thing is that because Janie is with these white children all day everyday she thinks that she is white because she has never seen what she looked like before. Until the day she gets her picture taken with all the children and finally realizes that she is in fact black. Can you imagine if you weren't able to see yourself? Think about it you look in a mirror at least if not way more then once a day. So can you imagine if you were in Janie position.
When Janie was growing up she had no mother because her mother, Leafy ran away after she gave birth to her. I can see why the mother ran away from her child because she was raped by her school teacher and it must be hard to look at the child after all you have been through. So Nanny, Janie's grandmother has been taking care of Janie her entire life and I think that she hasn't been doing the best job. Janie has no idea about love. When she first kisses Johnny Taylor she doesn't know how to react, it's almost as though she is unable to love. We see this again when she marries Logan Killicks and she questions whether she would ever be able to love him. She only really ever feels love when she runs away with Tea Cake towards the ending of the story. I can see why she would be unable to feel love because just look at the relationships that she has been in so far. Logan never paid any attention to her he kind of treated her like a maid. Joe Starks treated her like dirt and acted as if she never had anything of meaning to say. So after all of these relationships I was really happy that she finally felt love for Tea Cake.
The Negro Town seems as though it's a utopian society. It kind of reminds me of the book The Giver because it has the same type of community. All the same type of people and only one of them holds the power to communicate with the outside world. Jody does this and the town realizes this. He gets all of this nice furniture and a nice house and the rest of the town is made up of shacks. I think that the town really noticed that Jody was holding out on them when Jody got the spittoon and the rest of the town was shocked and in awe thinking, Hmm...maybe there's more stuff outside of this town. I feel that Jody is taking his power too far, especially on Janie. He doesn't allow her to do anything and keeps her on the outskirts of ever conversation. Janie leads a tough life while she if with Jody.

The reading "The Source", by Katherine Anne Porter gives the reader and insite as to how important rules and discipline are to making a southern plantation run smoothly. We see this dictatorship suddenly emerge in the character, Grandma. She is only truly happy when she gets things her way and when everything is running like clock work. When she goes down to check up on the plantation we see her dictator like conduct show its true colors. The instant she gets down there she starts bossing everyone around and getting everything back to the way she likes it. The slaves are doing all of these extra chores on top of their field work and really getting worn thin. In the story it says, "...They loved their Grandmother;...just the same they felt that Grandmother was a tyrant, and they wished to be free of her;" (5). This shows that the slaves although had much appreciation for their Grandmother at the same time they wished that she would go a little bit easier on them. I think that the Grandma is only calling all of the shots because not only does she have much wisdom on how to run a plantation smoothly, but she has an undying love for the country and only wants the best for the plantation. Although the people who work on the plantation may be worked too hard, at least they can live in a better enviornment. The Grandma helps the slaves out emensely by giving them better clothes and a better place to live in. The story explains that Mister Harry, the slave owner, mistreated the slaves by not giving them enough food or not supplying proper clothing and living spaces. The Grandmother was just there to make sure that the slaves were being treated properly.

In the second reading, "The Old Order" one of the main themes was interracial friendships. For all who live in the south during this time, friendship between blacks and whites is completely forbidden. Although in this story we see that Miss Sophia Jane and Nannie work together as friends to care for both of their children. Both of these women give birth to newborns at the same time and this forces them to work together to not only take care of the babies but to take care of the whole house on the plantation. Miss Sophia Jane takes care of both her own white child and Nannie's black child. During this time Miss Sophia Jane breast fed both children and took them both as equals all throughout this time when Nannie was busy with keeping the house clean. Nannie felt that the children should have been treated differently, that the black child, her child should not be treated the same as the white child, it should be treated as less equal. Whereas Miss Sophia Jane thought that treating them equally was the only way to take care of the two children. It is strange to me that Nannie would feel this way but then again I can see why because that's what she does everyday. She takes care of the white family and makes sure that they have everything that they need and forgets all about what she might need. This shows a truly loyal slave. As for Miss Sophia Jane, she shows that not all white people treat their slaves poorly. She shows cultural diversity and that she sees what inside of people not just their outward appearence.