Assigned Blog Post #6: You're Brilliant

http://inxplash.blogspot.com/2010/10/translation.html

I really loved this post about "The Translation" by Joyce Carol Oates. I had just been reading the story, and this post cleverly summed up what I had been trying so hard to find the words for. The parts I especially agreed with were: “we go to a foreign country with a translator, the translator becomes one of our senses. Depending on who our translator is, we will have a good or bad experience, as shown by Oliver’s story,” and “Liebert becomes Oliver’s mouthpiece and also is method of perceiving other people through their questions,” and “once Oliver’s translator is switched, the magic of the city vanishes.” This post does a really good job of pinpointing the message in Oates story. Nathan—you always write awesome posts, but this one really stood out to me because I was trying hard to translate my feelings about this story into words, and you really summarized the story up beautifully.

Swimming in a Pool of Delusions

           
Immediately after reading “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, I was extremely confused—Neddy didn’t seem like a reliable narrator—I didn’t know how much of the story I could trust. Was Neddy actually an old man lying on his hospital bed, reliving parts of his life—before coming in terms with reality? Or was Neddy a middle-aged man who had lost his senses after becoming “bankrupt over night”?

Then I realized that the allure of this story is that we aren’t sure and could never be sure—Cheever leaves plenty of room for imagination. Although I’m kind of disappointed that Cheever didn’t illuminate us (maybe he didn’t even think out the story himself—maybe he was taking an easy way out by making the reader imagine!), I realize it adds to the reader’s empathy and pity for Neddy. We realize that Neddy must have had something extremely painful happen to him, and by leaving that to the imagination of the reader, the reader can think of something painful that perhaps they themselves have experienced. Moreover, the mysteriousness adds to the characterization of Neddy as someone who has completely deluded himself.

Also, the two most important motifs in this story is swimming and drinking, and I’d like to offer my interpretation. Swimming represents the journey away from self-delusion and towards truth and reality. Irony lies in the fact that Neddy begins the journey in hopes of building up his illusion even more—he hopes to fulfill his “idea of himself as a legendary figure” by swimming across the county—but instead, is met with the stark reality that he has lost his family and house. The motif of drinking also contributes to the symbol that swimming brings Neddy closer to reality because as Neddy swims farther and farther, and he grows to doubt himself more and more (shown by Cheever’s use of rhetorical questions, Neddy questions his own faltering memory), he becomes more and more desperate for a drink. However, as he swims farther and farther, he finds it more and more difficult to get a drink. This really shows that as he swims away from the Westerhazy’s and towards his own home, his illusions are stripped away from him, leaving him naked and vulnerable to the cruel truth.

Lastly, I’d like to mention that my conjecture is that Neddy escapes from an insane asylum or a psychiatric hospital (or, more likely, becomes very very drunk one day) and visits his old neighborhood—reliving his memories of each location, and as he goes, his inebriation wears off gradually and as he sobers up, he realizes the reality that his old life has been cut short by fate, and he’s stuck with the life he’s currently living.

POV In-class exercise

The heavy knocks subsided and I breathed sigh of relief. I had almost been afraid that the impudent robber was about to knock down the new mahogany door. I pushed off the pile of t-shirts I had hid under and stood up, stretching my sore limbs. To think! What a story I now had to tell my brother Robert when he came home! A few moments earlier I had cursed him for not coming home on time; if he had arrived home at promptly 4 o’clock, I wouldn’t have had to face the robber alone. Now, I though happily, that I had survived an almost-deadly attack, and he missed out on the fun! Just as I was gloating over this minor triumph, I heard the squeak of the glass door in the back sliding open—shoot! I had forgotten to lock that door! I froze as I heard heavy footsteps downstairs—I knew they were heading towards the drawer where my parents always kept $500 dollars on hand for my sister’s piano lessons and my art lessons. But to my surprise, the footsteps were traveling towards the staircase leading upstairs—towards me! I scrambled back under the safety of the pile of clothes. They must be going for mom’s jewelry, I thought, as the footsteps came nearer and nearer—but instead of turning left towards the master bedroom, they turned towards my room—uh-oh—


POV OF INTRUDER:
I rummaged through my wallet—my jeans pockets—my jacket pockets—and still the silver key was nowhere in sight. Then I remembered that Michelle was home! I knocked on the door and waited for her to appear impatiently at the door and snap, “Did you really need me to open the door for you? Where is your key?” However, not even her shadow could be seen through the textured glass door. I slammed on the door—she must be taking a nap. When frenzied knocking produced still no Michelle at the door, I heaved a sigh and decided to try my luck at the backdoor. Leave it up to Michelle to forget to lock it, despite my dad’s constant warning about burglars. I walked to the back, and to my surprise, the glass door slid open with ease. Anger returned to me when I saw that Michelle’s Nikes were next to the door—so she hadn’t gone out—she’d purposely been ignoring my knocking! I marched upstairs to give her a piece of my mind.

Assigned Blog Post #5: Freshman

Get out of the way of the upperclassmen during passing periods; don’t crowd in the cafeteria during lunch; make sure to bring enough gum for the senior that sits next to you in calculus; but I never chew gum; well that’s all the better—just give it all to the senior then; make sure you do your history homework two days before it’s due so the senior can copy your homework before the due date; be sure to take notes very neatly in biology so the seniors in that class can copy your notes after their long nap in class; be sure to have your phone on during all twenty-four hours of the day in case a senior calls you for help on homework an hour before it’s due; don’t ever say “no” to a senior asking for help; don’t ever complain about any senior; speak only words of praise about a senior; this is how you smile to senior boys; this is how you smile to senior girls; this is how you open the door for senior girls; this is how you open the door for senior boys; this is the type of coffee you get for the seniors in your first period class; this is the type of energy bar you give to the seniors in your fourth period class when they are hungry and want the class to end so they can go to McDonald’s; this is how you help a senior cheat during an important test; this is how you help a senior cheat during an unimportant test; but cheating is not allowed!; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the type of freshmen that all seniors hate?

Assigned Blog #4: Aegisville Details...

Name of our town: I propose the name Aegisville.

Details: On one side of the town, the little houses should be made of red bricks, warm and cozy—on the other side of town the houses should be made of marble, hard and cold. This difference in the physical setting sort of alludes to the differences between the people who live on the two sides of town—and can serve to foreshadow tension and possible future conflict. Also, the town should be relatively small—so that everyone knows everyone around them. It would be extremely interesting to see how our characters all interact with each other! Also, I think that each town should have a certain “leader” who sort of spurs conflict with the other side—sort of like a politician. And I think that it would be interesting if the students in the high school sort of segregate themselves and only hang out with those students from their side of town, but once students from a foreign region come and compete with their soccer team, they bind together against the foreign team in order to win. Kind of cliché, but I rather like it. (: