Cover Letter

This portfolio has turned out to be the most interesting piece of work I think I've done so far for a class. Even having signed up late for the class, I feel like I jumped right in and didn't miss anything. When searching for a class to choose, I assumed a literature class would be interesting enough. I tend to enjoy a good read and have done a few decent book reports in my career in academia. However, this has been more than I ever expected.

The playlist was so much fun. It helped to take two things that I enjoy immensely, film and music, and merged them both together in a way that made it fun to create (and hopefully, fun to read). The collages were also a lot of fun. Having only used PageMaker a few times in high school, it was comforting that I hadn't forgotten everything. I think the Character collage was very much a "passion project" tying into the playlist. It was very hard to relay what I was trying to get accross through this medium. However, I think the Poem collage turned out much better. I seemed to find just the right pictures to play with and I think it turned out well.

The annotations made me a bit nervous at first. Interpretation is something I struggle with because I'm very afraid of being wrong. Once I let go a little bit and realized that Dickinson is open for lots of different interpretations, I felt a little better about it. I read them all (and understood them for the most part) like I never had before. I'm proud of the final product. I think they are well put together and thoughtful.

The Podcast assignment was really scary. Honestly, I was more nervous about doing this than most anything. The biggest fear I had wasn't necessarily of public speaking, but of totally blanking. It's been a long time since I've had to present anything aloud to an audience, but it seemed to work out in the end. What I liked (and hated) the most about it was that it was unscripted. It made it easier to throw something in impromptu, that you hadn't thought of before, but it also left a big possibility of messing up. Overall, I'm proud of the work our group did.

The video turned out (surprisingly) to be the most difficult project of the semester. I figured it wouldn't be so hard, but it really was a challenge. I chose to do it on Feminism and its impact on history and literature. There's a lot to fit into three minutes. As it turns out though, I learned a lot about the topic that I didn't know before. That was the most fun of all.

I really have enjoyed the way this class has allowed me to interpret works that I have and haven't read before. I think class time is beneficial when people can assert their opinions. I especially like that we have time to work on the projects in class. That has helped immensely. Overall, I am very pleased with the work I've done this semester.

Playlist

I had a very difficult time narrowing down a character to use for this assignment. I racked my brain for a week trying to come up with something solid. So rather than look through my book or movie collection, I listened to my music collection on a road trip and it hit me. Some of the deeper (and sometimes disturbing) songs that were played kept leading me to one of my favorite films, Fight Club. It is one that I am very familiar with and have committed most of the dialog to memory. This made the assignment a bit easier and it seemed to come much more naturally. Mostly, the songs are dark and very heavy. The lyrics are often what drew me to choose the songs although the instrumental aspects seemed to tie in well in the end. In the original version, there was a lot of back story and not enough explanation of how the music was meant to tie in.

The revision expands more upon the feelings the songs are meant to incite. While there is still a lot of character building, the musical explanations help tie into the story much better now. I'm very proud of the final product and how easily the work became as the project went on. For the most part, this didn't seem like school work. I really enjoyed breaking one of my favorite films into a playlist. I loved it.

Original Playlist
Revised Playlist

Character Collage

The character collage was based on the Narrator's role in Fight Club. I chose to use black and white images because I think it makes the images look simpler and bleak. In the original collage, I chose to have the Narrator sitting in a rundown building faced by all off the things that torment him. The image of Tyler is behind him, looking haggard. I originally placed him behind the Narrator as a figurative way of having him be the monkey on his back. The image of Blondie is at the bottom, in he midst of an actual fight club fight. I put him there as a reminder of what the Narrator had created. I also placed the viral Marla as a large focal point in the collage, smoking and looking dismal. I chose to have the smoke from the burning apartment building come up behind her as a way of showing how a lot of the Narrator's life is going up in smoke.

In the revised version, I chose to rotate Tyler and have him a bit larger and facing the Narrator, as if they are confronting one another. I removed Blondie all together because it was hard to integrate the image in a cohesive way. I moved Marla to the bottom of the image and left the lighting on her a little brighter than in the original. This allows the smoke from the burning apartment to rise all the way to the top of the image.

The final version isn't much different from the second version, I just tried to change Tyler a bit. Since the original photo of him was from the thighs up, he looked like he was floating with severed legs. I took the image of the burning building and brought it in front of Tyler so that it covered the bottom part of his legs. It looks much better now.

I know that the big reasoning behind the collage probably isn't very obvious to the average viewer. However, I feel very strongly about this movie and feel for the narrator and his struggles. Through making this collage, I realized how powerful visual imaging can be and it made me strive to make it better. I am very satisfied with the final product.

Original Collage
First Revision
Final Version

Poem Collage

I took this poem very literally. It was written in 1982, but is very relevant today as well. I took some of the key aspects from the poem and tried to integrate them into a picture of the "ideal" family. Saying this, I chose the nuclear, perfect 1950's stereotype and worked in some ominous aspects with the view from the window.

The revised collage is not a lot different from the original. I made the inhaler, pill bottle & stack of bills larger. I also added some text to the bills. This collage, unlike the Character Collage, was much easier to interpret and portray visually. The composition seemed fairly seamless. That being said, I am very satisfied with the work I did on it.

I've included the poem to help understand the collage more:

The Market Economy by Marge Piercy

"Suppose some peddler offered
you can have a color TV
but your baby will be
born with a crooked spine;
you can have polyvinyl cups
and wash and wear
suits but it will cost
you your left lung
rotted with cancer; suppose
somebody offered you
a frozen precooked dinner
every night for ten years
but at the end
your colon dies
and then you do,
slowly and with much pain.
You get a house in the suburbs
but you work in a new plastics
factory and die at fifty-one
when your kidneys turn off.

But where else will you
Work? where else can
you rent but Smog City?
The only houses for sale
are under the yellow sky.
You've been out of work for
a year and they're hiring
at the plastics factory.
Don't read the fine
print, there isn't any."

Original Collage
Revised Collage

Annotations to Emily Dickinson

I had a bit of a hard time with this at first. There are the familiar ones ("Because I could Not Stop for Death") that we've all read in high school and just never paid much attention to. Honestly, after reading them all over for the first time, I was apprehensive about submitting my annotations, because I thought my interpretations would be off. However, after delving a little deeper and doing some research, I learned a little more about Dickinson. Her reoccuring themes were about death, nature, God, and religion. Keeping this in mind, and knowing what others have written about her made it a little easier.

Some of my theories may not be exactly what she was thinking, but I think they are insightful and I tried to make them understandable. I think my favorite was "Struck I was Not Yet by Lightning." It was definitely an interesting one to try and discuss. I particularly liked the emphasis she put on the first words of the stanzas. It helps follow her mood throughout the poem. I was shocked at how much knowledge I did gain from deliving deeper into her works.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death
-This is a definition of the word gossamer.
-Here I added that the Narrator may have died in her night clothes.

I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died
-Here I offered my interpretation of the symbolism of the fly.
-This is an interpretation of what one line of the poem is saying about people holding their breath.

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun
-Here I provide a definition for the word sovereign.
-This was an edit to the original post on my interpretation of how the word Vesuvian implied a contrast between the narrator's original face and then his face of pleasure.
**Discussion of what the word "life" refers to in the first line of this poem.
** Discussion of how the author's own worst enemy is actually herself/soul/spirituality.

I'm Nobody! Who are You?
-I try and distinguish who "they" are in the first stanza of the poem.
-This is an attempt at explaining the difference in tone between the first and second stanzas of the poem.

The World is not Conclusion
-This is a comment on how Christians can sometimes be ashamed of their faith.
-This implies that the "gesture from the pulpit" is in reference to church clergy looking down on descent.

I Started Early - Took My Dog
-This is an interpretation of what "Hempen Hands" were.
-Here I try and make sense of the word "Mouse" as a metaphor of how the passing ship views her.

The Tint I Cannot Take - is Best
-This is my interpretation of the third stanza of the poem.
-This is a definition of the word "Bazaar."

Struck I Was Not Yet By Lightning
-This is my interpretation of what the "cause" was that killed the narrator.
-This is my interpretation of what the word "mansion" means in the poem.
** Discussion of a reference to God & how it interrelates with the other parts of the poem.
** Discussion of the important meaning attached to the emphasized words at the beginning of the stanzas.

A Light Exists in Spring
-Here I give my interpretation of the fourth stanza.
-This is how I view that meaning of the word "trade" in relation to life.

He Fumbles at Your Soul
-This is how I interpret 2 lines in the poem.
-The blow she faces is a metaphor for a spiritual crisis.

Podcast

This project gave me a lot of anxiety. I was worried, first, about doing group work. Not based upon my group's members, but based on negative past experiences. That didn't turn out to be a big issue though, so that was a huge relief. As we began work, it seemed really difficult to come up with exactly the angle we were going for. We knew that the literary theme of Choice & Consequence would yield a plethora of works to interpret, but we just couldn't put our fingers on exactly what we wanted. Eventually, we chose to use a well known film (Scarface), a very relevant short story (Love of my Life), and a poem that was a bit different from the first two works ("The Fish").

As the run through approached, I was nervous that we didn't have enough of an idea of what we wanted to talk about. As we got started though, I was really impressed with how we did. After receiving feedback on the preliminary podcast, I was confident that we would do well with the final presentation. After going back and listening to the podcast, I am very proud at how well our group did. It's obvious that we aren't professionals, but our opinions were clearly expressed and the banter seemed intelligent.

Choice & Consequence Podcast

Video

This project proved to be a challenge. I thought it would be easy enough, just google searching some images and uploading them to the video program. As it turns out, it took a lot of researching and sifting through usable and relevant images. After finalizing exactly what I wanted to include & exclude, it wasn't so bad. I had a lot of fun finding images and posters that were visually appealing as well as very important to the topic. I also loved finding all the music for the video. I think they add a lot of energy to the photographs and the way they match up ended up working out well.

My favorite photo in the video is the last one of actress Ashley Judd wearing a t-shirt that says "This is what a feminist looks like." I chose to put an effect that changes the hues in the photo. What makes it stand out is that since the t-shirt is black and white, it doesn't change color so it looks bright and is the focal point. I think it was a great ending photo for the video. I'm really proud of how it turned out and I really learned a lot about women and feminism through this project.

Video

Blog Postings

The blog postings and comments have been of great benefit to me so far in the class. Sometimes if I wasn't particularly sure of something, it helped to see what others had already posted on the topic. This in many ways helped get my creative juices flowing. I also like that it allowed me to interpret certain works in ways I may not have thought of before. Overall, I really like this form of communication rather than just using BlackBoard.

Blog 1 was my initial introduction to the class.

Blog 2 is a comment about "The Women who Clean Fish." It's specifically about how the women are ostracized for their genuine hard work.

Blog 3 is a comment about the relatability of the writing in the short story "Cathedral."

Blog 4 is my personal interpretation of the meaning of the song "Lucky."

Blog 5 is a comment about the meaning of "The Hills Like White Elephants."

Blog 6 is a comment about analyzing the image "The Waiting Room."

Blog 7 is a comment about the characters in the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find."

Blog 8 is a comment about the change that occurs in the essay "A Death in Texas."

Blog 9 is a comment about the connection between the stories "Girl" & "Sweat."

Blog 10 is a comment about the meaning of work identity in the stories "I Stand Here Ironing" & "A & P."

Blog 11 is a comment about the way children are expected to grow up too quickly these days.

Blog 12 is a comment on the collage based on the poem "Blessings."

Blog 13 is a blog posting about the podcast.

Blog 14 is some feedback having to do with an audio clip for the podcast.

Blog 15 is a comment on the Character Collage based on John Nash from A Beautiful Mind.