Sixth Post

I have continues plugging along in my book this week. I can’t say that it was all that exciting but it really wasn’t. I would have to say that the dialogue is the best part of the book thus far. It is very different than regular dialogue in the sense that Emily Bronte, the author, doesn’t us quotation marks. I have thought long and hard about and I have come up with some possible reasons for this. The first being that maybe at the time that the book was written there were no such things as quotation marks or that maybe they were used for a different reason. However, I am not trying to bash this masterpiece I am simply discussing her style. I also had a bit of a change in heart about the current narrator of the story. Her name is Ellen or Nelly Dean. She is the lovable old maid that has the gift of gab. Until this week I had seen her as a fare woman but after she gave a very slanted talk about Cathy I began to have a bit of a distaste of her. She acted very childish when she recounted a tale of “putting” Cathy in her place. It really shocked me because she seemed to be such a level headed and fair woman. She especially seemed like she would be a grown woman and act as such. More importantly I found out in this section that Cathy decides to marry Edgar Linton, who is her cousin but she also confesses some sort of love, although I don’t think that it is completely romantic for Heathcliff while he is secretly within earshot! What a twist of events! I guess I will have to read on to find out more.

5th Post

The reading that I did this week was full of plot development. I have begun to realize that romance novels such as, Wuthering Heights, are characterized by their rich plots and vivid characters. As I said this book is full of vivid characters. The narrator for the last few chapters has been the old gossipy maid that used to serve the Earnshaw family on Wuthering Heights. She is full of life and cast quite the opposite image of the estates other servant, Joseph. Joseph is vivid in more than one way, he is a devout Christian who always tries to sermonize about thing but he also stands out with his thick accent. Personally I find it hard to comprehend because I don’t understand that kind of English country accent. I always read it as a southern accent. This book also has a vivid plot. This week Heathcliff and Cathy snuck off to see how some relatives live at the residence of Thrushcross Grange. While they are outside peeking into the windows of the house they see their relative screaming and crying. They find themselves no longer envying the Lintons (The family of Thrushcross Grange) for their freedom from their parents. But, they realize that after they are attacked by the Linton family dog. Cathy is taken in and Heathcliff is sent away for his dark skin. I found that interesting to find out about what he looked like. Cathy stays away for weeks while Heathcliff is constantly pursued by Hindely. This helps build pity for Heathcliff and you can see it form when Cathy returns home and the maid who is narrating takes kindly upon him. There is some trouble with Heathcliff after her arrival but then again there always is and that is where I left off and I actually am excited to read more for once!

Annotated Bibliography

Should the government bail out the big American companies?

Silke Carty, Sharon. "Automakers Ask for Billions in Loans, Credit." 7 Dec 2008 .

The author of this article used information from the big 3 American automakers’ filings to congress. The article gives a brief overview of the trouble the companies face and it explains what the companies are trying to from the government. The article focuses on much of what GM is doing to tighten its belt and what is asking for (up to $18 billion). This article is helpful to my research because it gives the plight of the big companies and what they want. It also gave a little background into the old actions of the companies.

Becker, Gary. "Bail Out the Big Three Auto Producers? Not a Good Idea." 16 11 2008 7 Dec 2008 .

This article was written by a very reputable economist who was a Nobel laureate, Gary Becker and is about the big 3 car companies of America. The article points to a union as one of the major weaknesses of the American companies. The automakers made many concessions to the United Auto Workers throughout the last 30 years. These concessions crippled the companies with large payments. The author believes that GM should not be given aid and that it should file bankruptcy but the others should not. This article is helpful because it gives reason to how the car makers got in the pickle thy are in now.

4th Post

This week I read about the death of old Earnshaw and the events that precipitated it. I was so surprised to find out that heathcliff became more hated because Hindley had been sent away to college so the house could be at rest. Unfortunately, Joseph, the blundering servant with the terrible accent I have read about before, spread his piety to old Earnshaw and this truly messed things up. His children no longer could have much fun under the devout rules of Joseph and they grew very rebellious to all this. Joseph even impressed upon the dying Mr. Earnshaw that his daughter was terrible and he partly believed it and began to denounce his daughter by saying things like, “I cannot love thee; thou art worst than thy brother…” (50). This shows what kind of pain Cathy went through and it would be very hard to hear this from her own father. Initially she was hurt by the declarations against her but soon she grew immune to them or so the book says. I think that when her father said those things she was till hurt each time but she just couldn’t let it show either to not let her senile father delight in her pain or to hide her pain from Joseph because he was the one inspiring the hatred in Mr. Earnshaw. Another interesting part about the section that I read was the change of narrators. I still don’t know whether or not it is permanent or not but it found it strange. The other strange part is that none of the narrators are part of the family.

3rd Post

This week I read a good few chapters of the book. Again I was confronted by confusing dialogue and plot development. I am starting to think that the speaker of this novel, Mr. Lockwood, is never going to be in the love affair that I read about on the back of the book. I also learned that the widow that lives in the house bears the same name as the ghostly Catherine. So from this section I learned, that Heathcliff( the head of Wuthering Heights) is really a gypsy orphan who the former owner Mr. Earnshaw had brought home one day. Catherine was his daughter and she had a brother named Hindley. Hindley and Heathcliff didn’t get along and their father favored Heathcliff. This was very helpful for me in deciphering the love story and I believe that the young widow is no longer a part of it either. Heathcliff grew up complaining little and being very determined and solid. He was hardly ever a trouble and was a constant companion to Catherine and her fed her needs for a rebellious life. This led to him being despised by all the workers at the hose save one or two. I believe that he loved her because when Mr. Lockwood says he saw her ghost Heathcliff goes a little insane and yells to her to come in. What still confuses me is how the illegitimate Heathcliff got the title to the land when the proper heir, Hindley should get it and I think that it will be very dramatic and kind of cheesy. I haven’t decided whether or not I like this book yet because nothing thus far has kept me riveted to it. I hope some more reading help to craft my opinion on this book.

Second Post

This week I started reading my book and it started out very cryptic. The book started out with no mention of the name of the narrator who I later found out was named Mr. Lockwood I believe. This was very similar to the way All the Pretty Horses started but it contained much more detail. I can’t say that it was easier than McCarthy’s writing even though there was regular punctuation. I had trouble telling which character was which and one of the characters has a thick accent. Along with this trouble, I was also faced with the reality that this novel is a girl book. It was a thought that I had had when I first read the back of the novel because the names were so over the top and very typical of a woman’s romance novel. The book started out with our narrator visiting the place for which the book is titled. The family living at the house is very austere and strange. Nobody seems to be that happy which I find to be odd. Neither the owner or his daughter-in-law are to kind so I am having a herd time understanding why there would be a novel written or based on so sad and an unhappy home. I know that there is a romance in the novel but I don’t see any people that would be compatible because the main character seems to be a good match but the only other option for him is the daughter-in-law and she, although young and beautiful, is a scornful soul, who could possibly be a witch. I will only find out if I read more so I am hoping that it doesn’t get a mushy on me.

My Choice Novel

After a long time of indecision, I have decided to read the book Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte. I bounced around to many different books before settling on this one. The other books I looked at covered many other genres such as fantasy, science fiction and murder mystery. I decided on Wuthering Heights because the back of the book sounded intriguing if not even a little over dramatic. But I wanted an exciting book and I think that this one will provide the most enjoyment for me. I also tend to like historical fiction or things from the past and this one seems to fit the image. I also decided upon this book because my mother told that it was great and that was the real pushing point. One thing that I am already enjoying even though I have only read the back is the names of the characters, Heathcliff, Hindley and Mr. Earnshaw. This book is going to be lots of fun.

Seventh Post

To finish off the quarter I decided to read one more article about Norwegian-Americans. The article I read was called “Snowshoe” Thompson: Fact and Legend by Kenneth Bjork. This comes from the 19th Volume of Norwegian-American Studies and Records.

I thought that this article was definitely one of the best that I have read for this quarter. The article is about the life of a man named “Snowshoe” Thompson. Thompson lived in the mid-1800’s and he lived in the area that is now Utah and Nevada. He had emigrated from Norway when he was 10 and moved around until he ended up in Nevada in the 1840’s. This area of the country was completely shut off from contact during the winter months due to the snow. Fortunately, Thompson had grown up in Telemark, Norway and knew how to make skis. He made himself a pair of skis and began transporting mail across the mountains to the cities shut off from the world by the snow. He became a legend for is strength and I see him as a true Norwegian. He was honest and lived a clean life. He also was good to his word. One especially Norwegian characteristic that he possessed was in great storms; he would go up on a rock and dance his native dance! This action was compared by some writers to the snow trolls of Norway and it is very fitting. Thompson was so strong and dependable that he became a legend and I am truly proud to share a Norwegian heritage with him. I think that he is a great man and he is almost my ultimate hero because he could conquer almost anything and had no ego about himself. Those are some values that are so important to me. I just loved this article!

Sixth Post

This week I decided to put the Norwegian literature behind and read more about the history of our nation. I started reading the book 1776 by David McCullough. The book is about America and it’s fight for freedom from England.

The beginning of the book was a window into England before the Revolutionary Started. McCullough wrote about the way the war was perceived in England and how the people treated the king. I found it very interesting that the king was treated as almost a god and crowds of around 60,000 people would gather to see him drive by in his enormous chariot. The book also gave a brief biography on the king himself. I found it different because he seemed like a very astute man. He was all tied up in himself and into fashions like other kings of the time. I had always known him to a crazy king who was unstable in his actions and made poor decisions. This is the way that I had read about him since I was young and this impression was cast by the School House Rock video about the Revolutionary War. The book mentioned that later in life he began to resemble a man much more like this due to a hereditary disease. I thought that this idea of the English perception of the war was very interesting because we never learned about it in school. We always learned what the Americans thought about what was going on and it was refreshing to hear what other people thought, especially what British people thought. I really like this book and look forward to reading more as the week goes by.

Fifth Post

This week I read another article in my Norwegian-American Studies and Records book. This article was called Boyesen and the Norwegian Immigration, and it was written by Clarence A. Glasrud.
Boyesen is a young Norwegian who comes to America after attending college. He decides to become a writer and he writes stories of American propaganda for immigration. These stories aren’t written by a government contract but the tales often make America seem appealing to the reader. Boyesen actually hated things similar to the American propaganda that he wrote but his writings were different because he didn’t completely glorify America without attention to facts or being correct. I really liked this man compared to Rasmus B. Anderson who I read about a few weeks ago. He had a real heart and American ideals broke it. He was accepted but only to a certain extent by fellow authors and they paraded him around for curiosity and as a novelty. During this time Boyesen broke from his Norwegian roots and began writing stories about other immigrants. One story that he wrote called “The Man Without a Name” seemed to resonate with his cause. The story told of a Norwegian who came to America and was struggling but taken in by a rich farmer. He became a music teacher and fell in love with his student a beautiful girl. He confessed his love for her and then went to sleep at her doorstep dreaming the she would love him. While sleeping on her doorstep he froze to death. This really summarizes what I think of Boyesen. He tried so hard to be an American and when he did few recognized his efforts and when he criticized America people jumped on him and told him that if he didn’t like here to go home. I am sure this was the kind of stuff that broke his heart. It hurt me to keep reading because he really just wanted to be accepted but he wasn’t and he wrote about that. In the end Boyesen ended up changing his feelings for Norway. He wrote favorably of it’s immigrants and how the were a very hardworking and frugal people. In the end I believe that he had sorted out all his thoughts and achieved peace within himself about what he truly believed in. I really enjoyed this article.

Fourth Post

This week I was very busy so I only had time to read the first article in the other volume of Norwegian-American Studies and Records. The volume is number 19 and the article I read was called, Immigrant Image of America by Theodore C. Belgen.

I found the article to be very interesting and illuminating. It was similar to the article I read about the Norwegian immigration earlier but it had a much different tone. I equally liked both tones. The tone of the article was very informative and had very little bias. It gave the facts about how Europe saw America and the reasons for going. The other Article was too proud to be taken a seriously as this one. This article was more general than the previous and I liked that. It told of “America letters” which the author loosely tied to Norway seemingly on purpose to tell the general feeling about America. The early Norwegian settlers were greatly inspired by a manifesto that was written by early settlers of Virginia. The immigrants seemed ready and apt to face the challenges of the New World and some didn’t make it. The article also touched upon a very interesting topic. The topic was that as you move further into society you lose more of your heritage. This inverse relationship seems like common knowledge but the article described it in a great way. The article mentioned that when the immigrant came loaded down with his cargo he would have to abandon much of it because his traditional clothes weren’t right for the climate and his tools weren’t right for American farming. The description really made me think about how much of the culture is lost and only preserved though tradition and not functionality. As a side note, I found it very odd that throughout the article the author referred to America as, “the New World”, “the New Canaan”, “Canaan” and certain cities as “Utopias”. This new volume seems to be panning out as much more exciting than the other.

3rd Post

This week I finished the book called, Norwegian-American Studies Vol. 19. It truly disappointed me. I was hoping for intriguing information about deep things and group history of Norwegian-Americans. Unfortunately I was in for something else.
After I read the general article about the immigration of Norwegians I began an article on a man named Rasmus B. Anderson. This article seemed promising at first but soon it told of his harsh personality and his whole history. This article revealed nothing intriguing about him and it was also really boring. It went on to tell all the things that he did which no weight in what happens today. To me, this great Norwegian immigrant seemed like a cranky and selfish man who never was happy with the way things were. The next articles I read with an easy manner. I focused little on what they were about. Often times they were about specific family in some small town. It might be interesting to some but I found it to be bland and have no effect on what is going on today. It was especially boring because the articles didn’t try to keep you interested. There were just too many articles about how an area was settled and what the neighbors thought of each other. I sifted a few good facts from the article, one of them being that immigrants often found and connected with immigrants from their own valley rather than just fellow countrymen. But I picked up another volume with what seems to be more interesting subject matter so we will see about how I like that next week.

Post #2

This week I started reading a book called Norwegian-American Studies and Records. It is a collection of articles about Norwegian immigration and the notable people of Norwegian fame. The article that I just read was called, Norwegian Migration to America by Einar Haugen.

I found the article to be very interesting. I usually love anything that has to do with Norway and this didn’t disappoint. The style of the writing was half the fun of the whole article. It was written in such a proud but modest voice it kept me wanting to read more. The main focus of the first few pages was the reasons for emigration from Norway. The article listed reasons such as a desire for adventure and more thoughtful reasons when to me the reason is clear, being there wasn’t enough land to go around for all the people and some of them had to leave. Norway only is about 3% arable land so the population growth before the mass emigration couldn’t last forever. But they also did mention something that I think did have truth behind it. People left because they could go and do something. If they stayed home the would sit on the same plot of land and go nowhere in life so I am sure that there were people who didn’t want to be a farmer and this was the only way out. The latter half of the article talks about where the Norwegians settled in America. Many of them came to the Midwest as well as quite a few stayed in New York. They stayed in Brooklyn and I find it very interesting because I was in Brooklyn this summer and we stayed at a former Norwegian church. The pastor had told us that the whole neighborhood had been full of Norwegians a few decades ago, which was now a predominantly Mexican neighborhood. Thinking back from that event with the context of the book in mind, I realized that things constantly are moving. This is a great book and I am excited to read more.

First Post

This week I read an article about Sarah Palin and the link is http://www.newsweek.com/id/156472.
I found the article to be very interesting. The article starts out with such a humble picture of Sarah Palin, she’s holding a fish that she has caught. She is unlike any other candidate or politician that I have ever seen. The article then portrays her as a busy mother who is trying to juggle everything in her life and that she enjoys every minute of her busy life. She has a certain personality that is so accessible compared to other politicians. Her life is not one of elegance and prestige. Sarah Palin grew up in a town of 7000 people and there was little glamour in that town. Her only experience with glamour and the prestige of high city life was her entrance in the beauty competitions. She became the Miss Wasilla in 1984. She later came to regret doing this because it was embarrassing for her to recall. She is what believe to be a typical Alaskan. She hunts, fishes, and has been a proud member of the NRA her whole life. Palin describes herself as person who likes to get her way. She is a known as a maverick in her own state. She fostered many reforms and attacked the republican powers that had held and corrupted the government of Alaska. She cut the spending and turned the government around and ended the corruption. Palin did this, and enjoyed every minute of it. I think that she is a great person and although she is a little inexperienced in the international relations, I think that her charming personality, and maverick qualities suit John McCain.