Fall 2013 Online Assignment:
Notes from online student responses to Kerouac, O'Connor, and Anzaldua:
Just in case you didn't receive an e-mail response from a classmate, you can use one (or more) of these as starting places for your own responses (for part II of the online assignment).
Brett: I also thought Kerouac did an excellent job of trying to capture real life-moments as they unfold; and to show you the train of thought / consciousness of this narrator alongside what is happening on the outside. I also liked he captured the dialect of these characters within the text, and even used the text itself to try and show exactly how a person is talking, for example "in fact they'll even have to start piling up friggin levels of houses and others over that like your cityCityCITY"(2449).
Greg: It seems interesting to me that in today’s world, over population has become a huge topic of discussion. Back in this time it wasn’t as popular a topic, but we can see there were still people that saw it coming. “Hundreds of millions of hungry mouths raving for more and more” (2500). This story is all told from Jack’s point of view. As he quotes Dave on this matter of the problem with population, I have to wonder what Jack’s thoughts on all of this are. Does he believe in this whole scenario, or does he write it off as some crazy though Dave is rambling on about?
Matt: “We all agree it’s too big to keep up with, that we’re surrounded by life, that we’ll never understand it, so we center it all in by swigging Scotch from the bottle and when it’s empty I run out of the car and by another one, period” (2501). A most interesting aspect of Big Sur is the use of grammar in a rather odd manner, perhaps to highlight the impulsive actions of Kerouac’s life, one that was lived primarily on the road; his novels were almost all written on the run, another important aspect in reading any of his works.
Cole: This writing style also plays into the time period very well, and it plays off the rebellious nature of the sixties. My personal favorite quote from the piece is actually the first sentence. “But Dave is anxious and so am I to see great Cody who is always part of my reason for journeying to the west coast” (2499). Kerouac opens the story in the middle of a sentence, and it captured me from the get go. It left a lot of unanswered questions and also assumes the reader knew a lot about the time period, which was something else I appreciated.
Ryan: Each person he associates with has an interesting story of their own, and while Kerouac writes of them we are also shed light on his own story of being an alcoholic. My favorite quote form “Big Sur” is “So we drive back to town and go to the mad boardinghouse to drink some more and I pass out dead drunk on the floor as usual in that house, waking up in the morning groaning far from my clean cot on the porch in Big Sur—No bluejays yakking for me to wake up any more, no gurgling creek, I’m back in the grooky city, and I’m trapped” (2503). I just think this shows how he feels about his alcoholism. He feels he can’t escape, and that he’s trapped in a life that he hates.
Amy: The characters themselves hardly seem to matter as the are renamed throughout the narrative. For example, “ …who’s come along on this trip just to meet the fabled “Dean Moriarty”- The name I give Cody in “On the Road” (2502). This almost makes the characters feel less like characters and more like actors in a movie. I think this a really interesting concept. It would be fascinating to read these stories and see how “Cody” differs from or is similar to “Dean” within each respected story. I am going to assume that they would share similar traits and that the major differences would come about by the setting. As it turns out, Cody/Dean is a fictionalized version of Kerouac’s close friend, Neal Cassady.
Denali: In this excerpt of “Big Sur,” Kerouac’s tendency to use run on sentences is exemplified. Usually run on sentences can be irritating to read, but Kerouac’s writing still flows nicely without turning the reader off. By far the best quote in this selection is definitely, “We all agree it’s too big to keep up with, that we’re surrounded by life, that we’ll never understand it, so we center it all in by swigging Scotch from the bottle and when it’s empty I run out of the car and buy another one, period” (2501).
Sarah: The name “Hopewell” really highlights the part of their personalities that is important to the story. It reveals their tendency to see only the good in the world and they believe that they have the ability to make the world concede to their needs. This tendency of Helga to turn a blind eye to the evils of the world is what ultimately causes her downfall. This quote from Flannery’s story really shows Helga’s naivety well: “Her voice when she spoke had an almost pleading sound. ‘Aren’t you,’ she murmured, ’aren’t you just good country people?’” (2536).
Amanda: I was shocked that Hulga would rebel at such an old age but it is understandable when you have a mother like Mrs.Hopewell. I felt bad for Hulga, I feel like all she wanted was for people to see that she was smart and just because she had a wooden leg everyone thought she was dumb.
Andrew: I believe that major part of this writing was that you cannot judge an entire group by the actions of a few, which I believe is exemplified by the whole good country folk versus the manipulative bible seller. One of my favorite lines if just for the story itself would be this one, “I hope you don’t think that I believe in that crap! I may sell bibles but I know which way is up and I wasn’t born yesterday and I know where I’m going!” (2537). A large part of many of the readings that we have read so far has been religion. I find it pretty interesting that this one has religion but not in the way the previous readings had it, in this writing what stands out is that the characters almost attack religion (or at least Christianity) when it comes to Hulga and the bible seller at least anyways.
Ann Marie: While Mrs. Hopewell believes that she knows the ways of the world and all its secrets, Hulga feels that she is naïve, but its because of this belief that Hulga herself becomes naive, and it’s Hulga’s superiority complex that allows herself to be tricked into being seduced and having her leg stolen. I think the best irony of this story is when Hulga points out that Pointer is suppose to be “…just good country people?” and Pointer replies yes but “…it ain’t held me back none. I’m as good as you any day in the week” (2536). Meaning that the very people that her mother loves but she herself detests is about to outsmart her and make her see just how simple and naïve she is.
Kristen: Anzaldúa explains at some points the words that are derogatory when applied to women but next applied to men, and says, “Language is a male discourse” (Anzaldúa 2706). I think that it’s important to have a text like this in class because it kind of gives you another aspect of female inequality in a sub-culture trying to find their way in the United States.
Nick C: Anzaldua explains not only the xenophobia she experiences from Americans, but Spanish culture as well. Being a Chicano, she notes her language being seen as “dirty” or “archaic”. However, she seems proud of this, as seen in “Somos los del español deficiente” (2709).
Brendan: To prevent one from speaking their mind is to prevent them from reaching their full potential. This has often led to attempts through history to curb speech and writing, which was almost always met with resistance. One common way to curb unwanted speech was to eliminate the accents of different groups, as the author went through and still seems to feel strongly about. The statement Anzandua makes in regards to this is “Wild tongues can't be tamed, they can only be cut out” (2706). That quote perfectly sums up the majority of American Literature.
Ashley: Another thing I found interesting is that at Anzaldúa's school she and other Spanish speaking students had to take two speech classes with the goal to get rid of their accents. This is understandable since my parents did the same thing, but I never thought of schools doing it. I do agree with Anzaldúa's point in this narrative, “Attacks on one's form of expression with intent to censor are a violation of the First Amendment"(2706). Everyone should have the choice to keep their accents if they want to.