Love Medicine

Wow! Love Medicine made of turkey gizzards and holy water! That turned out to be a disaster. Grandpa dying or wanting to die and Grandma left alone with Lipsha feeling guilty. Well at least Lipsha found out who his father was. Many of us wish for love medicine to increase the love in our lives but love comes from giving your heart and not your body. You should notice if someone doesn't really love you by theri actions. Grandpa Kashpaw loved the idea of having a wife and having LuLu to lust after producing child after child. The love medicine that should have been used is the love medicine of discplining yourself and spending more time with the ones you love and not the ones that love to make love. Sometimes you think that your family is the only one with the problems and blame most of it on chemical imbalance or genes. If you look closely at other cultures they go through the same thing but handle it in a different way. When I think of the Indian culture I think of tribes that were chosen for marriage and children were born of that union. Maybe I have been watching too much television. After reading Love Medicine I know that this isn't true if it was before. Traditions in every culture should be respected for it is the ways of our ancestors that have cleared the way for us. I think if we listened to the elders of our families that have paved the way for us, we wouldn't have so much dysfunction. Because the world change we can change with it but our traditions shouldn't get faded away because its not the norm. When I read Family Linen and Love Medicine I thought "same ole thing." It reminded me that it doesn't matter who you were born too, we should take the traditions of our ancestors and apply them to our lives. Look around now and see the destruction that we as people have put families and our environment through. Marriage isn't sacred anymore and death is a joke. Where is the compassion! When June died, Zelda and Aureila could only remember how they tortured her and the bad things she did. It goes to show you that death isn't mourn anymore just criticized. I think this book was great to read and I will keep it close to my heart. Reading a comment today from a classmate, she felt that Love Medicine had to do with identity and conforming to white society. Everything is not just white society! We all have identity crisis once and awhile, but these people who tried to find themselves ended up losing themselves because they wouldn't change who they are. The best love medicine is the medicine of loving oneself so you can spread it down to the next person. Cureses, oils, liquids, or healers cannot do this for you only letting love take over your heart.

Mumbo Jumbo continues

Well, I figured it out. Everything is Mumbo Jumbo and this is what Reed wanted from us. He wanted to take our brains and turn it into Mumbo Jumbo. Well Reed, you have accomplished your goal! But you won't take me alive! I will complete this book and analyze it the way that it is suppose to be analyzed. I think I will just give it one more time before I just give up and throw the book in the garbage! Thanks for causing headaches in the most stressful part of my life.

Mumbo Jumbo

What are we reading? Ha.Ha. This book is soooooooooooooo funny in the begining that my children were laughing as I read the book outloud to them. I have some friends from New Orleans and they talk just like the characters displayed in the book. This book does raise some issues about religion, medicine, crime, and corruption. It also take you back in history with situations concerning presidents, to the VooDoo medicine used to cure the common spirit. I will be writing again tomorror. Give me some insight on what you think. I am disecting as much as I can so that I can stay on the right track.

Family Linen 2

I was surprised at the rest of the book. This was a great book to read and I suggest you past it down to others in your family. This story shows a series of patterns in the family passed down from generations before. The children, all competing for love, lost it somewhere as they were growing up because they spent too much time trying to win over Miss Elizabeth. Miss Elizabeth father was a bitter man after the death of her mother and she tried to fill the shoes of her mother. When I finished reading this I wondered how many families are going through the same thing. Family Linen is something that everyone has and is told different everytime. I saw some of my family members in this story and characteristics also. We must understand that harboring bad feelings for love ones or for the people around you can cause damage to your heart. Take for instance the grandfather, when his wife died he became bitter unto his death. He did not die an old man but a bitter man. I am writing a story on my own called the "Unfamiliar Family." It displays most of the problems that Family Linen has. As I look at my family I start to think that most of them are unfamiliar to me. What I mean by this is my mother died and they started taking on traits I know we were not raised on. Because of this, my siblings are unfamiliar people that I don't know. This book gave me more insight to my writings and what to think about when writing. Is there anyone in the class that can add to this?

Family Linen

I know we haven't finished the book, well at least some of us, but I am really enjoying the reading. Many times you get stories that are hard to read and I appreciate our professor giving us something to enjoy. How has eveyone readings been coming along? I am finding all kinds of ways to finish this book without the kids interrupting me. My own family linen with my siblings made me feel like Sybill sometimes, only difference is I don't need a shrink and I love children. Ha.

Chessnut and Gilman

Hello classmates and sorry for the delay. I had a great time reading both stories this week. I think the Chessnut story was sort of amusing. What I mean by this is, I got a kick out of reading this tale of witchcraft about a man whose hair and strength would strengthen in the summer and become weaker in the winter. Now I can believe the story about others picking the grapes and eating without permission, but this story was interesting enough that the couple listened without interrupting the negro man. People love to hear about stories that happened in the past and I believe the couple became somewhat excited during the story and purchased the plantation just to have a story to tell of their own. There are people from my generation who tell stories of this caliber that they have heard from generations after generations, but many I don't believe but they do. Sometimes the story is interesting enough to research. I did not take this story beyond what it really was and that was a great way to swindle someone into buying a plantation that became run-down and also reaping the benefits of employement.

The "Yellow Wallpaper was another story I enjoyed reading. Many times I see movies that portray these kinds of things. It made me think that the woman was Bette Davis because this is the kind of role she plays. I think John had had enough with his wife and he tried to lock her away for awhile. He thought for her and he nevered listened to what she had to say. His wife became to independent on him until the end of the story where she started figuring out what he was doing. What do you think?

Readings of James Henry and Edith Wharthon

It has been very hard for me comphehending reading material of this caliber. I enjoy reading and writing but when it becomes an assignment I get confused. It was easy for me to read Wharhon's story because of the way it was written. I understood what was going on and was able to identify the tension as well as elaborate on it. Many times you will find that me trying to dig deeper into something that many may not see. Many times my words get twisted up and I have no problem asking for help. I indeed find Wharthon story of some interests and enjoyable to read. It could have went on further then where it stopped because it was beginning to get interesting near the end. One thing that confused me was Mrs. Ansley mentioning that she had Barbara. Was this a child concieved by Mrs. Slade's husband or was she trying to upset her friend? I saw two women unhappy in their life regardless of their status in life. To hold that much anger and deceit between the two friends and continue a friendship without unhardening their hearts was horrible. Envy, lust, betrayal, and hate was among the few words that could be used to describe this story. There was not much I would change about the story but the fact that it should have been a longer story. There are some things that I would have changed about the story and that is the women daughters could have been elaborated on more and the life of the two friends. I wanted to know more about what their lives were like growing in these marriages.

James Henry story of "Turn of the Screw" gave me a headache. I really did not enjoy reading this story because it was confusing. I began getting the characters mixed up and some of the reading could have been edited. I must remember that there will be stories and text that do not interest me but I must apply myself to get through them, but this story was boring. The author could have deleted areas that would confuse most readers. I looked at the story and found that some of his sentences did not make sense and I had to re-read to get an ideal of what was going on. In order for me to comprehend, I read annotations and critical readings about the story as I went through. Many times annotations help me to understand what I am reading and how to find phrases and words to connect my sources together. Reading this story woke me up for what is in store for me. Actually it helps me to remove myself outside my comfort zone in reading. If I am to teach Literature I have to be ready for anything. I found that stories written in the 1800 are so rich in text that purchasing books on how to read literature is necessary. Maybe if Henry wrote it for more than scholarly readers, I could have enjoyed it more. Who knows, maybe one day I will become a scholar and others will find my stories boring.