Unpacking a quote

ENG101

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“At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies. He said that after the wallpaper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on. You know the place is doing you good he said, and really, dear, I don't care to renovate the house just for a three month rental”-The Yellow Wallpaper By

Charlotte Perkins Stetson.

  The  narrator of the passage “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson is unhappy about the wallpaper in the room. She is complaining to her husband (referred to as “HE”) about it because she feels that the wallpaper is haunted and she is beginning to see suspicious patterns and forms inside the wallpaper itself. The narrator's husband does not agree with her because he feels that if he is going to have to replace the wallpaper, he is going to have to to replace and renovate everything else in the house, nor does he believe in the supernatural.

  The narrator is facing an everyday battle to deal and try to get rid of the wallpaper. She is also a ill patient, which makes her husband wonder if her actions are caused because of her illness. When her husband says “you know the place is doing you good”, he is trying to convince her that she is just over thinking the situation, that its all in her head. I believe he is starting to feel frustrated with his wife as well, because of the repetitive renovations he said he would have to do, it seems as if the narrator is nagging to the husband.

  The husband seems to be more of a logical person than his wife, which in my opinion, feel he shouldn't repaper the room. The husband says “I don't care to renovate the house just for a three month rental”.  We know that this isn't their permanent home, so its understandable why he wouldn't want to renovate the house. The narrator says “This wallpaper has a kind of sub­ pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then. But in the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is just so - I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design”. We can see from the above quote that the narrator strongly believes that there is something significant about the wallpaper, why else would she be describing it with “I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of a figure” and “conspicuous front design”?

  Do I believe there is something suspicious about the wallpaper? Not at all. I do believe it is the narrators ill self conscience playing mind tricks with her, and driving herself and her husband crazy.

Edgar poe?

ENG101

Edgar Allan Poe Assignment

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10/8/2014

1. “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the

clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a

singularity dreary tract of country”.


2.At the beginning of the Edgar Allan Poe’s long poem “The Raven”, the narrator tells us “a

sense of insufferable gloom pervaded his spirit” when he first saw the building, letting the

readers know that the building was not appealing to him. Poe’s narrator also tells us “I say

insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable”.


3.In “The Raven”, Edgar Allan Poe’s narrator tells that when he first saw the building, “a sense

of insufferable gloom pervaded his spirit”. In this line, I believe Poe’s narrator is explaining that

his mood drastically changed for the worse, upon seeing the building.


4. .At the beginning of the Edgar Allan Poe’s long poem “The Raven”, the narrator explains that

it was a “dull and boring autumn day”. He tells us it is a “foggy day and he has been traveling by

himself on a horse, along a single unpleasant looking path’

My Final Assignment

ENG101

Final Essay Assignment

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During this stressful yet fast ending semester, I have learned a variety of ways to express different moods, different emotions, different paces, and different settings in my writing pieces. For example the last sentence you just read was very repetitive to express the importance of one of the techniques I have learned ;).

   During the course of my ENG101 class, I learned that the way you say things can have two different tones and meanings. For example, as my English professor told the class, “may I have a cigarette? And can I bum a cigarette?” have two different approaches towards the person. The first “may I have a cigarette?” has more of a polite, formal approach, showing manners towards the lender, but the 2nd “can I bum a cigarette?” is more of a casual, nonchalant approach, usually used when you’re comfortable with the person you’re asking it to. Choosing words that are more formal and polite can lead to an actual conversation, but using casual words like “can I bum a cigarette?” just lasts for the moment.

   One of my favorite writing techniques that I have learned this semester is descriptive writing. Descriptive writing really speaks to the reader and you can actually paint a story for the reader as they read your writing piece because it is flooded with details sentence after sentence, and the continuous use of periods and commas can set the pace and mood for the writing piece you are creating. If I used an excessive amount of periods in a sentence, it would make the sentence suspenseful and grasp the reader’s attention, for example: The tall man walked into the hallway. He looked behind him. He starts to walk forward slowly. He then pauses to realize...he forgot his house keys. That use of periods creates a “what's going to happen next” effect for the reader and can turn a OK writing piece into a great writing piece. Another reason why descriptive writing is my favorite technique is that there is no limit to details you can put into your writing piece. Every extra detail you include makes the piece that much better. You can make a reader taste that cheeseburger that you’re writing about, you can make a reader feel as if they were at the place you wrote about, the outcomes are endless. "The man grasped the burger with both hands, the oil from the patty drizzling down the sides of the bottom bun as he applies more pressure to his grasp", sounds more enticing than, "the man ate a burger".

   A unique technique that I have learned, and many writers use in their writing pieces, I as well, is giving human like qualities to objects or non-human things. This writing technique has helped me elevate my writing experience to a higher level. A great example of this technique is from the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlette Perkins Gilman. During the story, the author says " the clouds hung oppressively" meaning the clouds were very low, but by saying "the clouds hung oppressively" it gives you a strong image that the clouds are hanging low to the ground. Another prime example of giving human qualities to objects is "the leaves danced along in the wind". This sentence gives you an image of leaves flailing helplessly in the direction of the wind, and not literally a bunch of leaves dancing in the wind.

  This semester has taught me a great deal of writing techniques and tips to better me as a person, and my writing creations. The more I learn, the more I will be able to create a solid writing piece that not only I, but my readers will be able to enjoy, learning is a marathon, not a sprint.

Yellow Paper Stuff

1.   Explain the relationship between the narrator and her husband John. How does this relationship affect the narrator?

               The narrator's relationship between her husband, John, is unique and different, almost like a fantasy vs reality type of relationship. The narrator’s husband is a physician and says “he has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures”. John does not believe in the supernatural and focuses on the living and current, the narrator on the other hand seems to believe in the supernatural, as she says in the beginning of the short story, “there is something strange about the house-I can feel it”.

                  John believes the narrator is over analyzing things too much, and since she is sick, it is making her condition worse than what it is currently. The narrator’s relationship with her husband John affects her in a negative way. Since the narrator is sick, John tells her she should rest and not work, but the narrator wants to work and continue writing because she now feels that she is a burden to John, and she is starting to feel they are becoming distant between each other. The narrator would also like to share her writing ideas with John, and for him to critique her writing as well.

Bryant Park Peeping

ENG101

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Descriptive Paragraph #1

 There is a well dressed man sitting down at the round table. He is wearing a red and blue plad  button down shirt, gray slacks, black socks, and brown Steve Madden shoes. The man is slightly unshaven, his facial hair blonde, and his hair blonde as well with a crew cut. The man leans back in his chair, right leg fully extended out, left leg slightly bent as he eats his meal. He has a white plastic bag on his lap, he dips his right hand into the bag and takes out a green and yellow bag that read “WISE All Natural Potato Chips”. He holds the bag in his right hand, dips his left hand into the bag and puts the chips in his mouth. His eyes close while he is chewing slowly. He sits prompt into the seat and puts the chip bag into the plastic bag and reaches into the plastic bag once again with two hands and pulls out a cheeseburger, his mouth slightly opened and eyes fixed on the burger as he takes it out the bag. He brings the burger to his mouth and closes his eyes as he takes a big bite of the burger. He brings both of his legs in and rests both of his elbows on his thighs as he holds the burger near his mouth still chewing from the previous bite. He suddenly looks down at his right pocket, food still bulging from the side of his right cheek, and begins to put the burger back into the bag.

Descriptive Paragraph #2

The man is sitting down next to a round table. He has a sky blue button down shirt on, the first two buttons are unbuttoned. He has on gray slacks that are slim fit, his pants are slightly raised, a brown belt with a gold buckle, brown dress shoes, black socks, and black slicked back hair. He is on his iPhone with his right leg crossed over his left, and he is shaking his right foot rapidly. He has on white headphones. The man has the phone in his right hand, he has no facial expression, he is concentrated on his phone. He takes his left hand and flicks his nose with his left thumb and sits upright into the chair and takes the headphones off. He wraps the headphones around his phone, puts the chair into the table, and begin walking away up the stairs.

Descriptive Paragraph #3

There is a man sitting at a round table with a empty Poland Spring bottle. He has his right elbow on the table with his phone in hand, placed on the right side of his ear. His left arm is stretched out against the other table chair, his forearm resting on the top of the chair. The man nods his head back and forth and begins to make gestures with his left hand. He makes a open palm, and then a closed fist. His hair consists of white, black, and gray hair, with a slightly bald spot in the middle oh his head. He has on a gray Adidas track jacket on with red stripes going down the sleeves, grey wind breaker pants, and grey Nike running sneakers. He takes his left hand and runs it through his hair, and then scratches his bald spot.

Descriptive Paragraph #4

A black pigeon is straddling across the walkway. It has white coloring along the edges of its wings. The pigeon stops walking and turns his head to the right, then the left, right again, and begins walking towards the steps. It hops up the first three steps, hops down one step and walks along the step, then hops back up to the third step. A man is running towards the steps, the pigeon begins to fly away and into the grass. The pigeon walks towards other pigeons in the grass and begins turning his head in all directions. It then raises its left wing and starts to pick at under its wing.