Eng 481 post 5

The reading this week dealt with the issues of racial identity and value. These issues are the topic I would like to discuss this evening. In the case of Chesnutt's The Wife of His Youth the narrator of the story deal with the complex racial identity of being "black" while having fair skin tone. The narrator values his "whiteness" over his African descent. It may be uncouth to say but I believe that, given the circumstances of his time, the narrator properly utilized the assets that his mixed birth had afforded him. Don't get me wrong, the narrator had lived his life as a pretentious ass, but in a culture where being white was considered good and black people were considered subhuman the choice of the narrator seems much more reasonable. On that note I will leave you, whomever you may be, with this thought. If pretending to be someone you weren't afforded you a better lot in life would you? What would be the significance of such a facade? Food for thought.    

Engl 481 Post 4

So today I think I want to blog about the paper. I was very happy with the paper in terms of guidelines and openness of topic. Due to the freedom of selecting my own topic I was able to make my paper very personal and relevant to my own interests. This paper felt less like an assignment and more like an independent discussion of my own feelings regarding our past readings. I am curious how the rest of you felt about the first paper.    

Engl 481 Post 3

Mary Wilkins Freeman's The Long Arm is a tale of intrigue and suspense. The deceptive use of false clues and subtle hints, which make much more sense in hindsight, lead to misconceptions and false conclusions. During class today we discussed the story and when we all figured out who had killed the father. My group mates for the most part all accurately guessed the correct murderer by about half-way through the story. I didn't know who the murder was until it was explicitly stated. From this I arrived at two important conclusions. First Freeman used suspense and false clues to great effect within the mystery genre of her story to keep the reader guessing. The second conclusion was that I would make a terrible detective.