Sitting here on my floor I have homework sitting to my right, and a diet pop sitting on my left. Not to mention facebook is open in another tab on my internet, and the television is on. Seems homework is being beat by about a thousand to one. Do I have very much homework to do? No. Would it take me that long to do...? Not really. So why am I not doing it? I decided to do my literature blog, that is homework... So technically this is homework... right? Nah.

Anyways, I do have to say I am an Olympicaholic... I don't think that is a word. It should be! Today I watched curling, stupid sport if you ask me! However, did you know that it is not fully funded so everyone who does it has a full-time job in addition to training... and they have families! I have a lot more respect for them after hearing that! Except USA lost by .2 inches. I was angry to say the least. First, I watched the sport of curling... Second, the lose. What a waste of my time huh?!

Alright alright, I better go study for my American Civilization test... good think I quite like history :)

p.s. tomorrow lent begins... no sweets for 40 days... Yikes!

Essay One--Reflection

For this being my first essay in this class I am proud of how well I did. However, in rereading it I did not catch how frayed my supporting paragraphs were. I had too many ideas to present within a five paragraph essay. I need to work on picking my strongest points, or separate them so that they each have as much emphasis on my point as the rest. I also have a lot of trouble with where to use commas, as well as semicolons. For some reason I always seem to get them wrong, I need to work on getting that corrected so that I don’t have to worry about it anymore. Lastly I need to work on letting myself express my ideas in the way which they come out of my head instead of trying to make them fit into a “round hole.”

Ignorance is not Always Bliss

Ignorance is not Always Bliss

Essay One

“‘You were right, old hoss; you were right,’ the man mumbled to the old-timer of Sulphur Creek. Then the man drowsed off into what seemed to him the most comfortable and satisfying sleep he had ever known. The dog sat facing him and waiting” (124). Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire” greatly parallels Aesop’s Fable, “The Tortoise and the Hare”. The man in the story, whom is never named, is traveling across the Yukon in weather colder than fifty below zero. Only serving to add to his pride he is not only defying nature being out in dangerous conditions, he is doing it alone. The old-timer of Sulpher Creek had warned the man about times like this; that it is better to wait, than to go at it alone. "Don't brag about your lightning pace, for Slow and Steady wins the race!" (Aesop's ABC). The man becomes the Hare of the story, while the old-timer like the tortoise is wise about his actions and knows the dangers of nature. Through imagery, tone, and flashbacks London shows, the slow and wise win the race, while the ignorant and impatient die along the way.

Through the use of intricate imagery Jack London paints a picture as well as a story within his readers’ mind, showing how actions as well as decisions have repercussions. According to friends in Alaska this is true; “He knew that at fifty below spittle crackled on the snow, but this spittle had crackled in the air. Undoubtedly it was colder that fifty below—how much colder he did not know” (115). The man knew it was cold, cold enough to be seriously dangerous. However, he sees it as almost an interesting fact, not a warning to take heed; shown by this quote, “…but the temperature did not matter. He was bound for the old claim on the left fork of Henderson Creek, where the boys were already…He would be in to camp by six o’ clock…” (115). Nothing short of defying the cold and getting to camp mattered to the man. He was so caught up in the pompous ways of his actions that he would stop at nothing, not even the threat of death hinging in the air. The image of his spit chattering on the ground, frozen even before it hits the ground is said in very few words; however, it is an image engrained into the readers memories. Through this imagery Jack’s point begins to be foreshadowed; being full of oneself has consequences.

Jack London sets the tone of his story by the words he carefully selects to tell his story. The dialect which he uses to describe the man’s suffering and hypothermia tell the reader that things are not going well—and that there is more to come down the road. “…the hair on his face did not protect the high cheek bones and the eager nose that thrust itself aggressively into the frosty air” (116). Not only is there superior imagery used here, but the tone he creates is not happy or excited; it is a cry of misery from the arctic cold. Words like eager, thrust and aggressively all have negative connotations. After his fatal mistake of falling into water he begins to freeze; “…he glanced down at first in order to assure himself that he was really standing up, for the absence of sensation in his feel left him unrelated to the earth” (122). This quote shows the consequences coming into play for his haughty attitude; it also through words such as; absence and unrelated, shows the beginning of the end.

Through flashbacks towards the end of “To Build a Fire,” Jack London shows the denouement of the man traveling across the Yukon. The first quote shows his panic in knowing that this had become a life and death situation. “He remembered the tale of the man, caught in a blizzard, who killed a steer and crawled inside of the carcass and so was saved” (122). The man is beginning to realize that because of his actions, and pressing on he is now in a situation in which drastic measures are being called for. Within a short amount of time however, he realizes nature has won and flashes back yet again to the old-timer. “He drifted on from this to a vision of the old-timer on Sulphur Creek. He could see him quite clearly, warm and comfortable, and smoking a pipe. ‘You were right, old hoss; you were right,’ the man mumbled to the old-timer of Sulphur Creek” (124). This flashback shows the man’s final moments as he admits he was wrong, and is now suffering the consequences which happened to be death.

Just as the lesson was learned in “The Tortoise and the Hare” the same lesson is learned in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.” One must be wise in the decisions he makes in order to quite literally stay alive. Being open to advice from wise, experienced parties is much greater than being ignorant and closed minded to advice. So much so it could save a man from freezing to death, alone… somewhere along the Yukon. The Bible even speaks on this topic; in Proverbs 4:6-7 it reads, “Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”

Works Cited

Proverbs. NIV. Web. 10 Feb. 2010.

"Story Arts | Aesop's ABC | The Tortoise and The Hare." Story Arts | Story Arts Online! Web. 10 Feb. 2010. .

“Revelation” -Flannery O’Connor

“Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor is a great example of how race was treated and viewed in the 1960’s. According to the Spokane Daily Chronicle from January 1965, times were changing. The South had begun to greater accept African Americans. However, this only fueled those who were against them. So the separation grew to more of a love or a hate for them. Some people saw African Americans as filth, where others saw them as neither good nor bad, while others had a great struggle trying to pick a side. Mrs. Turpin is an example of the third. Towards the beginning of the story she recalls how if God had asked her if she wanted to be white trash, or black, she most definitely would have been black. “All right, make me a nigger then—but that don’t mean a trashy one.” And he (God) would have made her a neat clean respectable Negro woman, herself but black” (382). In this you can see that she almost would have been okay with being black, and that it was much better than other things. This is where you see her inner struggle begin to unfold. Here she gives the connotation that there is nothing that would be different if she were black, just her skin color. Later however when she is speaking to her black workers she shows the other side of her warring opinions. “Idiots! Mrs. Turpin growled to herself. You could never say anything intelligent to a nigger. You could talk at them but not with them” (390). Here she shows her other opinions that they were most definitely not her, and were lower than her. Mrs. Turpin seems to know that at heart blacks are just the same as whites, however due to the negative society views she has a very hard time letting herself think this. Blacks were moving up in society, but the process was slow. Some people still hated them, while others lived with them and found them bearable, yet struggled with those feelings due to society telling them they were wrong.

"To Build A Fire" -Jack London

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a fine example of the use of flashbacks as a way of foreshadowing. The first flashback seen in the story is just when the man is sitting down to have his lunch. “That man from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes got in the country. And he had laughed at him at the time!” (118). In this flashback the man is coming to terms with that he had been wrong about the cold. About this time the man makes the mistake of trying to eat his lunch without first lighting a fire. The man at Sluphur Creek had been correct, and this is where the reader finds that these flashbacks hold information as well as warning, the beginning threads of foreshadowing. Soon after the man began his journey again disaster broke. Wet up to his knees in more than fifty below he knew his time was short. Keeping his calm he lit a fire. “He remembered the advice of the old-timer on Sulphur Creek, and smiled. The old-timer had been very serious in laying down the law that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below” (119). This quote shows another warning, one that the man does not take, but the reader can see an opening to a life and death situation. The flashback again foreshadows that soon the luck is going to turn, and the man is going to wish he would have heeded the advice before it was too late. I feel that through London’s use of flashbacks he creates a much deeper story, as well as one that keeps the reader engaged as to why the old-timer at Sulphur Creek has such importance.