Brokeback Mountain Blog

I had only seen certain parts of Brokeback Mountain before so I was pretty excited to view the entire movie and compare it to the short story. The short story was told over a long period of time but the movie seemed to last a lot longer than I thoughted. The movie was overall a really good well written and directed movie. It was also very graphic. Some parts caught me off guard but there was a lot more to the movie and the two characters, Jack and Ennis, than just physical attraction. They actually had really strong feelings for each other but it seemed like they could just never get their timing right enough to be together. I felt really bad for Ennis' wife throughout the whole movie because she seemed like such a great wife and mom. On the other hand, I didn't really feel as back for Jack Twist's wife because she was very stand offish during their whole marriage and it seemed as thought she was more interested in running her father's business than in their relationship. Overall, the book was very consistent to the book and was a very interesting movie. It also broke the boundaries having a pair of homosexual cowboys as the main characters.

Miriam's Lover

I read a short story called Miriam's Lover, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is about two friends that were discussing a girl, Miriam, ,that had stayed with one of the girls, Mary. Mary explained how Miriam was "queer" looking because she dressed very different than most people. Mary told her friend stories about Miriam and how she claimed that she communicated with her lover, Sidney, who was far away. She told Mary how they didn't need to write telegrams all the time, because they could send messages to each other. Mary was very skeptical about Miriam's claim and didn't believe in ghosts or telepathy of anything of the sort. Miriam claimed one day that she knew that her fiance, Sidney, had had an accident but she didn't know what kind of accident exactly. Two days later, she received a telegram saying that he fell off a horse and had broken his arm. Mary, still skeptical, started to think her friend Miriam maybe wasn't as crazy as she is claiming her to be. Another incident was when Miriam told Mary that she knew Sidney was dangerously ill. She wasn't sure with what either but sure enough two days later, she received another telegram saying that he had typhoid fever. Mary, at this point couldn't believe her eyes. Sidney is very deathly ill but is still alive at this point. One day Miriam and Mary were in her room when Miriam fainted out of nowhere. It took awhile for her to wake up after fainting but once she did, she had a very bizarre explanation. She said that Sidney was in the room with her and Mary right before she fainted and said he came to say good-bye because he was dying. Mary explains this story and it shows how her take on everything spiritual and what she considered "queer," may not be all the hocus pocus she claimed it was. Maybe there was some way all of these events really did happen and Miriam wasn't crazy. I really liked this short story because it was unlike the other two that I read. It was interesting and the events that were happening were just too bizarre ironic. I thought it was a really cool different story and I really enjoyed reading it.

The Waking of Helen

I read a short story called The Waking of Helen, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was about a man that is in a small town for summer vacation. He notices a youong girl, and befriends her. She is actually the niece of the family he is staying with. His aunt and uncle aren't very fond of the girl, Helen, but he is intrigued by her. They also won't let her read any books, although she loves it so much. He brings her books and they talk about literature and become very close with one another. Helen mentions on day, a cave that if you wait to long, you can't escape the tide. She tells Reeve about a young pretty girl that died there once because she had fallen asleep on the sand and woke up just too late. He decides to go there one day and ironically falls asleep on the beach as well. When he wakes up in a panic, he notices that Helen is on her way to save him. He would've dies if she hadn't come to his rescue. At the end of the story, his summer vacation was coming to an end very shortly. He lays a huge secret on Helen a few days before he leaves. He tells her that he is engaged to a girl at home. He couldn't tell if Helen cared or not, judging by her expression. He ends up leaving after having a very passive good-bye. That same day, Helen went to that cave and sat exactly hwere Reeve had days before her. She notices the tides started to change but doesn't even get up to move. I am not sure if she was wanting to kill herself or even if she did die. I really liked this story because there was a lot going on and it was almost a love story with a twist at the end and left me wanting to know more about what happened after he left his vacation spot.

The Red Room

i read the short story, The Red Room, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I found it on a website and had never heard of it so I decided to read it. It starts off with a mother telling the story to her daughter of when she was young. She told her about when she used to go visit her grandma's house for christmas and the odd things that would happen there. It was a very odd story and i picked up on certain things that happened but wasn't sure if I was understanding them correctly. The young girl, Beatrice, told stories of her uncle and his wife, who she met for the first time that one christmas. It seemed like they had a really weird relationship and almost seemed a little sexual. The story is about Beatrice and her aunt, who become very close. I think her aunt had mental issues because she seemed very munipulating and finally her affair with her foreign lover surfaces right in front of her husband, Beatrice's uncle. She continues to live in her room, "The Red Room," until her husband comes home from work one day. He finds her about to kill herself and she finally stabs him in the chest with a dagger, killing him. The story is very odd but kind of interesting because it had a lot of twists to it. Because her uncle died in that "Red Room," hardly anyone ever goes in there after his death. Beatrice is telling her daughter this story because she is going to visit her grandma shortly in the same exact house with the "Red Room." Overall, I thought this story was very interesting but also very weird at the same time.

This story was about a young boy and his mother and family that are really poor and have to work really hard to make ends meet. The young boy, James, is only about eight years old but he seems like a very smart young man. His mother is a very stern, tough woman. From the sound of the story, it seems as though she is probably very pretty and skinny, because she doesn't eat much and gets hit on by two men throughout the story. James, the young boy,acts very tough in front of his mother because that is how she always tells him to act. She tells him to act like a man and treats him as though he is older. The part when she is trying to make James kill the small birds to eat is very strange. He is very young and it seems like he is almost too young to be taught to kill these small animals for food. She teaches him to act like a man and has trained him to keep his head up high and to have a lot of pride. She never accepts anything for free and teaches her son that you always have to work for things that you want and they should never be handed to you. At the beginning of the story, it is mentioned that James' father is away in the army. At the end of the story, it seems like maybe his father may have died or is never coming back and that is maybe the reason why his mother is so tough on him. She wants him to be prepared for anything that is thrown his way in life and to deal with it without showing many emotions. I really liked the part of the story when they are waiting in the waiting room at the dentist's office between the other young boy and the preacher. It's a very interesting conversation they have and I think it made a lot of sense. The young boy was thinking for himself and didn't care who was around to hear it. At the beginning of the story, I wasn't sure if James and his mother were white or black and then found out later they were black. I really enjoyed this story and I'm excited to watch the movie to see the characters in action.

Tomorrow the short story and the movie

After reading the short story, Tomorrow, I really had no idea what was going on. The dialogue at the beginning and the end in the courtroom were confusing because I wasn't sure what was going on in the middle of the story. When we watched the movie in class, the story seemed alot simpler than I thought. The main part of the movie took place where Fentry was staying at the saw mill where he was working. Sarah, later his wife, was staying with him for most of the movie until she gives birth to her son. Sarah and Fentry decide to be married seconds before she dies after giving birth. She makes Fentry promise that he will always take care of her son and to raise it as it was his own. He promises her that he will take care of him and love him as if he was his own child and for her not to worry. I liked the movie because it helped me understand the plot a lot better, especially seeing it played out. The main difference from the story and the movie was the time that Sarah and Fentry spent together in his house. There wasn't as much time spent on the personal relationship that Fentry and Sarah develop. The movie was quite slow until the end when it picked up after Sarah's family finds Fentry and takes his son, claiming that he needs to be with his kin. In the movie, Fentry is a really quiet but gentle man. I actually feel really bad for him in the movie because it seems like that the only loves he has ever known in his life, his son and Sarah, were both taken from him after a short period of time. I like the story better than the movie because the movie was a little boring, but it definitely helped me understand what really happened in the story.

Memento Movie

After I read the short story, Memento, I was really confused on what exactly the character, Lenoard, was experiencing. i wasn't sure what really happened to his wife or if he had anything to do with the accident. In the movie though, a lot of things became a lot clearer. I really enjoyed the movie although it had alot of events and other characters that weren't in the short story. The guy that Leonard was after, "John G." was a constant character in the whole movie, who I wasn't sure was or was not in fact Teddy, Lenoard's "friend" and cop. I kept thinking that he had something to do with the accident of Lenoard's wife, and I still do think he may have been the man who actually killed and raped Leonard's wife, but I am still not positive. There was also another character in the movie who was not at all in the short story by the name of Natalie. She was just using Lenoard in the movie, although she seemed likea very sweet genuine girl, at first. Later on, she uses Lenoard's condition to benefit herself and to harm her boyfriend who thinks she did him wrong. The part in the movie about Sammy Jankis was also another part in the movie that I really enjoyed. It gave the plot a twist because Lenoard indeed, finally found that he had encountered the same, or similar, disease that Sammy Jankis had had. The story, overall, is a little dark and disturbing in some parts, but I think it's a really interesting story and seeing the movie helped understand some of my unaswered questions I had immediately after reading it. I still wonder who "Teddy" really was and what his intentions were. He seemed very sketchy the entire time and used what he knew about Lenoard, and his condition, to maybe keep himmself out of trouble. I think he may have convinced Lenoard that they had found this "John G" that he has been looking for that he had already found him and killed him. The only unanswered question that I have about this story is about who Teddy really is in the story.

Memento Mori

When I started reading this short story, I was really intrigued. I wanted to know more about the character the narrator was referring to. As I read on, I thought some of the passages became a bit disturbing. Some of the thought that this person is talking about to Earl, the older man, really started confusing me. I wanted so badly to know what was going on. The parts about Earl not remembering his wife's funeral, or even the way that she died, was very sad. Most of the story, referring to Earl, were quite sad. It says that Earl has CRS, or a Backwards Amnesia. I'm not really sure what this means. It seems as though Earl is just in a hospital somewhere, and has such bad memory that he has to remind himself to do every smal simple talk that most people would not even think twice about doing. He has to remind himself to brush his teeth, to look around to make sure he doens't already have a lit cigarette around in his room somewhere, and even to remind him that he now lives in that hospital. He reminds himself to do all these small tasks by posting post-its all over his room. I am not sure what some of the post-its were really saying. The post-it that said Earl was still a "coward" confused me. I feel like this was a post-it reminding himself that if he wants to pass time and have some-what of a normal life, he has to work really hard at it everyday and cannot give up on himself. I think the saddest part of this story were the parts where he cannot remember his own wife's funeral and has to figure it out on his own everyday. He has to go through losing his wife everyday over and over. I also didn't really understand the different settings that kept coming into play. I thought they might have been flashbacks from his life that he was having every once in awhile but I wasn't quite sure. I also am not sure who is the narrator, or the person in the end that gives Earl a bell for his tombstone. I am very curious if this is someone he maybe created in his own mind or if it is actually, in fact, a person. I also was thrown off by the tattoo that Earl has on his arm that read, "I RAPED AND KILLED YOUR WIFE." I starting thinking after this part if that is what happened to his wife and maybe he was the person that did it to his own wife, and maybe he just can't remember. I kept disregarding this thought of mine, because I didn't want to believe that this helpless man did that to his own wife, and cannot even remember any part of it. By the end of the story, I thought to myself that maybe the narrator is actually hi own wife maybe saying things to him that she would if she were still alive. The last part of the story that I wasn't sure on was the part with all th drawings and shapes all over his body. Were these just other tattoos that he got throughout the years. Although I found this story a little disturbing, I am interested to discuss it so that I can figure out the plot a little better. I liked the way this story was written and thought it was very different and interesting.

The "Killers" From page to screen

After watching the two different video clips, I reailzed a few things about this short story. Although it may not be the longest story, it has a lot of different aspects that are very interesting. In the article, Hemingway's 'The Killers" and Heroic Fatalism: From Page to Screen,' I still find Ole Andreson's reaction to Nick Adams just as interesting. In the article, heroic fatalism is defined as the 'graceful acceptance of one's circumstances in the fae of personal disaster up to and including one's death." Although Andreson's reaction was meant to come off this way, it is interesting that in the short story, there still is no detail as to why he reacts the way he does. In the article, it explained that Ole Andreson's character was based off Andre Anderson, a former boxer who wronged someone in a fight. I almost was dissapointed when I read this part, because it was the big question in the story that I had. It was the biggest detail in the short story that had no explanation in the story, whatsoever. I find it very interesting how many movies have been based off this short story. The first time I read the "Killers," I wasn't really impressed. I thought it was a little boring and didn't have much action. After reading it through again and analyzing the different characters and sequences, I really started liking it more and more. I liked watching the different movies that have been inspired by this short story and the different ways it is portrayed in these movies. There are such big differenes between the two "Killers" movies, but the main idea is the same.

The Killers

At the beginnig of the story of the Killers, I kept getting confused on which character was who because there was a lot of dialogue but sometimes it wouldn't mention who said what. The story is about two men, Al and Max, who go to a small town in New Jersey called Brentwood. They are looking for a man by the name of ole' Anderson, who supposedly eats at a small diner in town every night at 6 p.m. The two men are very rude to the employees at the diner and actually tie up another man that is eating at the diner and the cook in the kitchen of the restaurant. The two men, Al and Max, wait for awhile to see if Anderson is going to show up. The part of the story that was missing was the actual reason the two men were going to kill Anderson in the first place. They say they are going to kill him for a friend but don't say why. Once the two men give up on waiting for Anderson at the restaurant, they eventually leave. Nick Adams, the other customer who was tied up with the cook in the kitchen goes to Anderson's house in town to warn him about the two creepy men who were looking for him. The weirdest part of this short story was Anderson's reaction to the news that Nick Adam's revealed to him. He seemed very content with staying in his house and was not worrying at all about the situation. He seemed as though what was going to happen, either way, was inevitable and there was nothing he could do about it anyways, so why bother. I really enjoyed both videos because they helped me to understand the story more clearly and which characters were which. I like watching the college kid's interpretation of the story, as well. The first video was almost exactly the same as the story and the college kid's was a little more original, which made it more entertaining to me. Overall, I enjoyed reading this short story but still wish I knew some of the unanswered questions that are still lingering.