Author: jpiszcz

Picture 001: Caption: A wide mix of seeds.

Picture 001: URL and Citation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brimley/130865463/
Uploaded on April 18, 2006
by Brimley
Copyright: CC

Picture 001: Type of correlation: To pair the photograph with Krakauer’s own words, thoughts, or descriptions. The caption should “fit” the image.

Picture 001: On page 195 of Into the Wild, Krakauer says “If McCandless ate a big slug of these seeds while he was already in a semi-starving condition, it would have been setup for catastrophe.”

Picture 001: Write up: This is a picture of different seed types. I selected this image because is visually depicts a wide variety of seeds and that one may become confused or be unaware as to which are safe to eat. I chose the caption that I did because McCandless stated that game was scarce towards the end of his life. Therefore, he may have had an incentive to splurge on some seeds. For this image, it should fit the picture and not be ironic. This photograph influences the meaning of the caption as the wide variety of seeds may be confusing to someone not in touch with nature. It may lead one to eat the wrong seeds or eat seeds which may be good at one time but poisonous at other times. For people in a city or not in the wild, looking at the image without the caption, many people would see some seeds and maybe try and plant some flowers or trees with them but not eat them. Reading the caption mentioned above describes what one is seeing overall, not the specific type of seeds in question. The caption encompasses what one makes of the image at first glance and straight forward, a wide variety of seeds.

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Picture 002: Caption: A moose in a place he does not belong due to the sharp contrast in color that easily reveals its location.

Picture 002: URL and Citation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nilsohman/101625623/
Uploaded on February 19, 2006
by Nils Öhman
Copyright: CC

Picture 002: Type of correlation: To pair the photograph with Krakauer’s own words, thoughts, or descriptions. It should be an ironic juxtaposition.

Picture 002: On page 166 of Into the Wild, Krakauer says “On June 5, he shot a Canada goose as big as a Christmas turkey. Then, on June 9, he bagged the biggest prize of all: “MOOSE!” he recorded in the journal.”

Picture 002: Write up: The photograph shows a real moose, not a caribou. I chose it as it was a big topic of discussion toward the end of the book. It was when Alaskan’s wrote Krakauer with heated remarks about McCandless not knowing the difference between a moose and a caribou. The caption is ironic because Krakauer first sided with the Alaskan people, that they must be correct. However, during careful study, it was later discovered that it was indeed a moose after all. The photograph influences the meaning of the caption by showing the reader or observer what a moose looks like. This is important as after the some people had discovered the pictures he had taken of the moose, the remarks about McCandless seemed to end. This particular image is also juxtaposition in itself, as it almost appears the moose was artificially inserted into the image as if it does not belong there. One can contrast this with the story as the Alaskans remarks were unwarranted as they did not have any proof, only “assumed” that it must have been a caribou. The caption frames this photograph as the moose being out of place; this can be contrasted with the comments of the Alaskans as also being out of place or simply put, wrong.

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Picture 003: Caption: An English teacher’s worst nightmare.

Picture 003: URL and Citation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cadigan/16903181/
Uploaded on June 1, 2005
by Cadigan
Copyright: CC

Picture 003: Type of correlation: To pair with quoted dialogue or other cited material from the book that should be ironic.

Picture 003: On page 166 of Into the Wild, Carine says “His name was printed wrong. The label said CHRSTOPHER R. MCCANDLESS. His middle initially is really J. It ticked me off that they didn’t get it right.”

Picture 003: Write up: The photograph shows multiple spelling errors, where to should be too. I selected the image to show juxtaposition between this image and McCandless’ name being spelled incorrectly. In this image, the people on the bus are both writers and editors, which make this image ironic. In the story, it is ironic that a cremator would misspell a love one’s name as one would assume he or she would be very careful to not make any mistakes. This photograph shows that even though there were writers and editors in the bus, that they did not appear to care if the advertisement was misspelled or not. The correlation between this and the story is that even though it ticked off his sister, she did not do anything about the misspelling, just like the editors and writers that were on the bus. It is ironic when people who identify such errors with spelling or getting the initial wrong do not make any attempt to fix them, rather, they just complain. If it really impacted his sister, she would have had the name corrected, I believe Krakauer is “stirring the pot,” when he mentioned her being ticked off.

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Picture 004: Caption: Icy winter rapids.

Picture 004: URL and Citation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luckienyc/93793145/
Uploaded on January 31, 2006
by luckienyc
Copyright: CC

Picture 004: Type of correlation: To pair with quoted dialogue or other cited material from the book that should apply to the image somehow.

Picture 004: On page 170 of Into the Wild, McCandless writes “Disaster. . . . Rained in. River look impossible. Lonely, scared.”

Picture 004: Write up: This photograph shows very rough rapids during the winter season. I chose this image to indicate what McCandless may have seen when he tried to cross back over the river. I chose the caption as I did to depict how difficult it may be to attempt to cross such an obstacle, especially when the water is near freezing! This correlation is not ironic. This picture shows the main obstacle that caused McCandless his life. McCandless had planned to return home as he had packed his bags and thought he could cross just as he had done earlier. Unknowingly, with the water still both freezing and violent, he could no longer cross. This ultimately led to his demise. The caption “icy winter” shows the water almost as being frozen like icicles as it rushes over the rocks. With my caption, I did attempt to obscure one’s view from the bridge in the background. Naturally, there was not a bridge nearby for the river McCandless had crossed.

When I first began reading the play Sure Thing by David Ives, I thought it was mistyped after having reading the same few lines twice. Then I noticed a few subtle differences in what the characters were saying. Before reading the textbook’s explanation of the story, I tried to make sense of it myself in relation to other forms of plays and movies. For example, in the movie Groundhog Day, the main character is forced to re-live the day each morning when he wakes up. Throughout the movie, he encompasses everything that can go wrong in a single day by attempting to act like different people or do things he had never done before. The main character can do this because there is no threat of legal or personal reprisal as when the next day draws near, he will have a fresh start once again. I drew a parallel between that movie and this text in that each situation only involved the two characters, Betty and Bill. Where, in each scene, a different attempt is taken by Betty and Bill while communicating to one another. Before I thought of the story as multiple “takes” on each scene, I was not sure what to make of what was going on. After reading the play through, one can deduce what the story is about. It is about the two main characters, Betty and Bill who experience problems while in the dating scene. Ives depicts all the ways people mess up when trying to date one another incorporates them into the play. Instead of starting from the beginning with the two characters meeting each time, Ives writes three or four takes per each scene throughout the play. The bell seems to go off or represent every time there is a goof or slip-up, in which case the scene is then re-run with a different spin or approach. Overall, one can view this story as “What if…?” as it depicts what occurs when each of the characters say almost everything imaginable. Reading through the play was somewhat fun because the reader is unaware which character will make the next blunder and how bad it will be. In the end however, the longest portion of conversation occurs without a [Bell.], this signifies that a connection was made between the two characters as they have finally both agreed to go to the movies together.

The Story of an Hour (pp. 449-451)

This story is very ironic.  The story begins with Mrs. Mallard, who learns becomes aware that her husband, Brently Mallard, was just in a horrific train accident.  Her husband’s friend worked at a newspaper, his name is Richard.  After getting the news and verifying it, Richards believed Mrs. Mallards’ husband was dead.  Mrs. Mallards’ sister Josephine gave her the bad news in broken up sentences.  Mrs. Mallard then wept.  Mrs. Mallard then remains at home and is very depressed; she becomes ill as she thinks spirits OR joy possesses her.  She acted like she had nothing else to live for toward the end.  The end is ironic as when Josephine, Mrs. Mallard are walking downstairs to meet up with Richard, Mrs. Mallard’s husband walks through the door and the sight of him causes Mrs. Mallard to die due to heart failure, “of joy that kills.”

A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings (pp. 451-455)

Pelayo and Elisenda are a couple who live near the sea.  They have to constantly remove all of the crabs both in the yard and in their home as the stench of dead fish is unrelenting.  One day at noon, the sky was very dark and Pelayo spotted what looked to be an old man stuck in the mud or sand.  The man was later discovered to be an angel as he had real wings.  A woman who knew all about life and death said the rain knocked him down out of the sky.  The couple put him in the barn with the chickens.  The local town’s people all become intensely interested.  When this occured Pelayo and Elisdenda charged five cents for people to come by and look at him.  The angel would not eat mothballs or lavish meals, the couple would rarely if ever see him eat at all.  After awhile, the couple had saved up enough money to buy a new house farther away that would keep the crabs out in the winter.  They also put steel bars on the windows to keep the angels out.  Throughout the story, various carnival actors came to try and make money on the discovery.  Toward the end, Elisenda was slicing onions and a strong window blew throughout the kitchen.  Elisdenda looked outside and she saw the angel was trying to fly.  His first attempt he fell down, his second attempt he gained some altitude but then failed again.  On his third attempt he flew away and was no longer an annoyance to the couple because he was then an imaginary dot on the horizon on the sea which represents him flying far away into the distance.

The Use of Force (pp. 459-462)

This is a story of a doctor who goes to a mother and father to inspect their child for a possible diphtheria infection.  Both the mother and father are described as being very big.  The child stared the doctor in the eyes and did not express any facial movements.  The child had a fever for three days, when the doctor asked if she had a sore throat; the parents said that she did not.  The doctor then asked the child but she did not say anything.  When the doctor got close initially, the little girl leashed out at him like a cat would directly at his eyes.  While she did not get his eyes, she knocked off his glasses.  At this point the doctor started to become infuriated.  Knowing the risks of a possible diphtheria infection, the father allowed the doctor to proceed and force opening her mouth.  He put a wooden spoon in her mouth to keep it open while he attempted to get a throat culture, before he knew it she had crunched the spoon and it had become wood splinters in the back of her mouth.  Throughout the ordeal the child had also bittern her tongue, which was now bleeding.  The doctor then stated he was going to continue and they were going to get through this.  The doctor, at the peak of his frustration overpowered the child and forced a heavy silver spoon between the back of her teeth and down her throat until she gagged.  Then, he discovered that she had been lying all along as he discovered both her tonsils will covered by membrane.  The girl had fought every attempt to keep the doctor from knowing her secret.  At the end, the girl was crying in defeat, almost because she did not win the battle between herself and the doctor.

Cherrylog Road is a poem that depicts a boy and a girl having sex in or around Georgia during the 1930s to 1940s. There are three main characters: a boy, a girl named Doris Holbrook and her father.

What makes this poem rather unusual is the importance of the setting and situation. The setting in the story takes place in an automobile junkyard. The boy in the story exquisitely describes the different types of vehicles and automobile parts throughout the poem. The boy also gives the reader an inclination of the current weather conditions when he states “… Like a mouse in the southern-state sun.” This gives a hint that it takes place during the peak of summer in the southern United States. The situation brings suspense to the story. The boy mentions Doris; the girl he is supposed to meet may not be able to make it if she cannot escape her father’s eye. In the middle part of the poem, the boy primarily ponders whether Doris will be able to make it to the junkyard. Next, Doris arrives; the setting and situation then come together. The boy and Doris not only have sex; they do so in a place that should be off-limits to kids and only if her father knew what she was doing.

Another interesting note to make is how the author contrast’s youth and the age. This occurs in the beginning of the poem when the boy is describing the old, torn up automobiles in a junkyard. The boy and the girl represent the youth in the story. The boy is then excited further knowing what is going to happen in particular because it is risqué. It is not as if he was in bed at his or her house at night; instead, it is at an old junkyard during daytime, which increases his excitement.

The last three lines sum up how this experience had affected his life. When the narrator states: “Drunk on the wind in my mouth, Wringing the handlebar for speed, Wild to be wreckage forever.” This shows the boy heading back home to his normal life; however, one may infer that he is changed forever.

Here were my notes on “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver with some possible interpretations about the ending toward the end of this post.

Cathedral was a story about three people, a man, his wife and a blind man. The blind man’s name was Robert; he was in his mid-40s. He recently flew to Connecticut to visit his in-laws after his wife’s death from cancer(?). The officer’s wife originally had worked with the blind man ten years ago in Seattle. Since that time, the blind man and the officer’s wife sent video tapes back and forth to one another detailing what was going on in their lives. Since the man was an officer in the U.S. Airforce, they moved around a lot between different military bases. That did not stop the officer’s wife from sending tapes to the blind man.

The part we did not discuss in class was when the officer and his wife ended up in Sacramento. She attempted to commit suicide by swallowing many pills with gin. It was interesting as her husband was said to be away most of the time but he had just come home just in time and saw her passed out in the bathtub. He then proceeded to call an ambulance.

After this, her husband is not happy about the blind man coming to visit. There was some tension that the officer showed when he found out the wife of the blind man was Beulah. The officer was shocked he was married to what he believed was an African American woman.

When Robert arrives, the officer’s wife cooks dinner for them and they have many drinks. After the meal, his wife goes upstairs to put on her robe. It is during the time, the officer and Robert smoke weed. When the officer’s wife comes downstairs, she also takes a hit. The officer’s wife tells Robert his room and bed was ready; however, Robert was not ready to go to bed yet. Therefore, the wife decided to sit next to the men and asked to be woken up if she fell asleep. They started to watch some late-night TV.

One part that is open to many interpretations is the ending, the last three sentences where he states: “My eyes were still closed. I was in my house. It�s really something, I said.”

There are probably many things going at this moment, I did have two possible interpretations. First, throughout the whole story, he did not understand and was afraid of blind people; perhaps just for a moment he wanted to put himself in Robert’s shoes to see what it was like. A second, deeper point is towards the end, the officer’s wife wakes up and asks what is going on, Robert replies to the officer’s wife what they are doing as the officer himself did not respond. Could it be a possibility that the officer kept his eyes shut to obtain some kind of insight as to why his wife and the blind man hit it off so well? Overall, these last few lines can be interpreted in many ways, just my two cents.

Justin.