#16 Assigned 10/19

Dr. Seuss caused a lot of discussion in class. Specifically, the book pushed us to reminisce our childhood dealings with familiar books. We can all remember our parents reading Dr. Seuss to us before bed, everything from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas to Green Eggs and Ham. On Tuesday, Andrea revealed the main allegory behind The Butter Battle Book. Published in 1984, this book displays in a childish way the primitive nature (slippery slope) of The Cold War.

After this, Holly revealed her interpretation of the pink ribbons with Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown." Critics have long debated these pink ribbons. In the story, the ribbons belong to our protagonist's wife, Faith, who appears to be loosing her innocence. This is symbolized by her pink ribbons. The color pink itself is a combination of the colors red and white; pink is a tainted white. And white normally standing for good and innocent adds to this interpretation. Holly's presentation concluded that fiction is really left up for interpretation; we all have our opinions about literature, as long as we can support our claims.

Chris wow-ed us with his Freud and Frankenstein presentation. He seemed to be unpacking the psychoanalysis of literature, and then he disproved its usability and credibility. He concluded that in looking at a text without considering the author's life and external/internal inclinations, we are not really uncovering the author's intended message.

Shannon also did an amazing job unpacking Donne's "Death Be Not Proud." The possibility of religion replacing death throughout the poem adds for intriguing conclusions. To finish off the day, Alexandra did a great job of providing a synopsis of The Kite Runner. From this project, the class walked away with a better understanding of how an author's life can really affect their literature.

The one thing that really sticks out to me from this day in class was the responses to substituting religion in Donne's sonnet. In the middle of class a forum for religious debate opened up. All of a sudden someone exclaimed what they believed about the afterlife; specifically this person believed that obeying the ten commandments (from the Old Testament Bible and the Books of the Law within Judaism), these would save their soul. I might argue that most people, religious or not, believe this. If a person believes in the afterlife, they have to wrestle with the thought that there might be a ranking or classification segregating those who have committed good and bad actions. Well, whether or not you and I believe in this, we can both acknowledge how provoking another discussion like this could be.

Well, I could spend a whole other page discussing the extent of belief and my personal reasons for faith. But this must be all for now.

out.