critical response

In the poem "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson irony plays a major role in the outcome of events that occur at the end. To the reader Richard Cory seems like he is living the perfect and most ideal life style, almost that he is better than others. What's ironic is that the entire town believed that he was living a happy life when in truth he was miserable clearly being stated at the end, "And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet through his head"(14-15). Not only did Robinson make it a point that he wasn't happy  but by adding in a calm summer night he is using two far reaching comparisons to make his point with the help of situational and verbal irony. This poem is teaching a good moral in that not everything is always as it seems, and having money and grace may not always be enough to bring you true happiness. Richard Cory's life was far from happy and simply just a fallacy in the towns people's eyes.

Work Cited
Robinson, Edwin Arlington. "Richard Cory." The Bedford Introduction to Literature.Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008.927-28

weekly blog 8/29

During last weeks class we spent a lot of time on refining our own definitions of literature in order to help with the essay coming up. I think by reading different people's aspects of literature and discussing it as a class has allowed me to come up with my own definition of what it is. I also thought it was interesting when Mr. Burke asked us to define ourselves. That made me stop and really think about how someone would define themselves and it was an interesting activity. Buddies also occurred this week  so I missed two days of class, catching up wasn't too difficult and I look forward to what we learn this week.

weekly blog 8/23

I think after analyzing the poem as a class, and seeing the painting it began to help me think about the actual meaning of the poem that wasn't clear to me in the beginning. Discussing the history and even what literature means to us was very helpful in assessing the poem at hand. I was able to come to the realization that Yates was reiterating to the reader how he believes life and the world goes about in cycles and once the cycles ends something terrible must occur, so humans can put it back together and continue the cycle on and on.

Academic Literacy and College Readiness Responses

1. Goldengrove
2. The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao
3. How to Read Literature like a Professor
4. Tweak
5. Glamour magazine

As a writer I am able to develop ideas well in my head but I need to work on conveying them better on paper and making it more clear to my reader while maintaining a strong academic voice.

My strength is my ability to communicate well with others and exhibit my curiosity when pondering new things. My weakness is being to shy with my questions when I dont understand something completley.