Blog 16: Final Reflection

This semester at Eng102 class was a very enjoyable experience for me. I had the most fun than any other previous English class I had experienced here at La Guardia. When I first sat down in class for the first time I had thought what type of writing us (students) were expected to do. Learning it was the "Super Natural" theme, I found it very exciting because themes like Greek Mythology, Angels and Demons, Vampires and Werewolves were fun topics I could talk freely about in my writing. I then thought of my youngest sister who is currently a high school freshman at Long Island City High School. She loves to read books such as the Harry Potter series and is a huge fan of the Super Natural. I would recommend this class to her if she ever considers to take an English class here at La Guardia. Talking back about me again, my first blog opened the door of myself that connected me with the other students. I then read from other students and learned that each introduction was a different story. Reading from their first blogs, I learned a little bit about their personalities through their writing style.


My second blog started the real work in class; I had to choose a poem of my own choice and the first thing that had popped into my mind was Greek mythology. I wanted to find a poem that would talk or relate to the heroes, gods and goddesses that were so famous and exciting to read about. I chose Ares because he was the type of god who would always have his way of doing things and he loved to partake in battles for senseless fun and I thought that was cool. The other reason was that there was a popular video game that is still popular in the series. That game is “God of War” and playing that game for the first time was an insane experience. It was brutal, gory and it did bring me fear seeing how I slaughtered mythologcial monsters but as I continued on the game grew on me and I saw myself being the hero on a very important quest. Which then brings up to my next fun experience that I had learned in this class called the 'Hero's Quest'.

The other theme we worked on in class that was really interesting to me was the Hero's Quest. In class we had watched an animated film, by the famous Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki, called 'Spirited Away'. I actually very much enjoy Japanese anime culture and famous action hero films that exist in Japan. For our own choice in choosing a hero’s quest film, I had chosen to write about a heroic Japanese film called “Azumi”. She is the lone female assassin that actually survives all the trials and challenges that her fellow male assassins could not. She is the unlikely sexy heroine that would take on an entire army of soldiers and bandits in order to save japan from another war that has brought devastation upon many people. Using 'Monomyth' or the 'Hero's Journey' helped me to analyze the film by seeing the story into specific stages that lead to the hero surpassing or transcending his/ her former self. Learning this helped me to analyze heroic films even differently than i had seen them before.

For one of the last few blogs i had worked on the end of the semester was a short story called the "Tell Tale Heart". In this Engish class, I had also learned topics related to the field of Psychology and before I thought that studying the field would make a person go crazy but I see now that the topic is indeed very interesting. we learned about the Carl Jung's 'Shadow' and Sigmund Freud's 'Psychoanalytical Criticism'. Working on my short story has piqued my interest to learn more about psychology and what goes on inside the mind of people that are suffering mentally. Back again to my short story, Using psychoanalysis helped me to get some kind of psychological ideas that perhaps drove the narrator to go insane such as him denying that he is a mad crazy person. He is in self denial. The fact that he can be able to tell a story openly to his audience through the story and being able to describe every action is indeed quite insane. I think I will consider to study psychology since it seems to me a very interesting topic to learn from seeing that it is also still a new field to science.

My overall experience here in this class was indeed fun and i had met many interesting people that came with their own ideas.

Blog 15: Final Draft

The short  horror story "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe was first published in January of 1983. This short story is one of many popular known stories from Edgar Allan Poe's collection. Reading from beginning to end, I find that the story is quite disturbing when the narrator realizes his own guilt overcame him and how he denies the fact that he is actually mad. For this story, I will employ Psychoanalysis to explain the latent thoughts and actions that occured inside his mind. His disease mentioned in the story is perhaps one of many common mental disorders occurring in many people. Symbolism also plays a significant role in the story. This is because they connect to the narrator's actions which may define his character or the situation that occurred.

The author of the short story Edgar Allan Poe, was born on January 19, 1809 and died on October 7, 1849. His parents had died when he was very young, thus he became an orphan, but was later adopted into the Allan family by John and Frances Allan. Poe was an American writer, poet, and journalist; he is considered to be a member and part of the American Romantic movement. He had struggled financially and had earned his living by writing essays and short stories from which he earned very little. Poe died from unknown causes due to brain congestion, drugs, alcohol, heart disease, suicide, and other unknown factors that could've led to his death. His early experiences with death and the passing of many close people to him may be the result of his own psyche going insane.

In "The Tell-Tale Heart" the story is told by an unknown narrator. He is actually the Protagonist and the Antagonist in this story. To further explain this, he is both the victim and the predator of his own actions. He plots to kill the Old Man being the predator and becomes the victim of guilt when he hears the sound of his own heart beat. Perhaps an even better interpretation is that the narrator is his own worst enemy in the sense that he is always having conflicts within himself. At first, in the beginning of the tale, he claims that he harbors no ill will towards the Old Man and he is always kind to him. The only thing that disturbed him was the "Vulture eye" the Old Man possessed. The narrator states, “Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees – very gradually – I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.” This can explain the inner feelings of loath and disturbed hate he had for the Old Man.

Much earlier in the opening of the story, the narrator claims that he is indeed very nervous but not does not consider himself to be mad but only having sharp "Acute" senses because of "The disease". This disease he speaks of is probably a disorder known as Neurosis. "Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. This disorder is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder" (Wikipedia). The narrator seems to be suffering from this severe disease yet claims that it has made him aware of all things.

After eight consecutive nights, the narraor calmly waits in the darkness... like a shadow stalking the Old Man in his sleep. Waiting for the opportunity to murder him but ultimately to eliminate his eye. When he succeeds and murders the Old Man, he disposes the body by dismembering the corpse and hides it underneath a wooden plank. He finally feels that all is well and solved. He does not regret or even consider the event that just happened then policemen arrive for an inspection. The narrator gladly welcomes the policemen and displays his confidence yet after their long stay he suddenly becomes paranoid because he hears the sound of a beating heart. The noise haunts him as the sound gets louder and louder until he is no longer able to contain his guilt and at last confesses to the policemen by revealing all that has really happened and that he was actually the murderer.

The field of Psychology was established by an Austrian psychoanalyst named Sigmund Freud; he is the founding father of the field and has written many theories concerning the functions and thoughts of a person’s psyche. According to Wikipedia, "Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism is the literary approach where critics see the text as if it were a dream. The process of changing from latent to manifest content is known as the dream work" (Wikipedia). The hidden message in the text lies latent and it is the critic’s job to unravel the mystery by identifying the symbolism and language used in arriving at the true content.

The article Unconscious Mind, "While past thoughts and memories may be deleted from immediate consciousness, they direct the thoughts and feelings of the individual from the realm of the unconscious". This quote explains the narrator's unconscious feelings towards the old man himself because he was driven to the limit of going mad that because of the old man's eye he had decided that he should be put to death.

One of the main symbols appearing in this story is the "Vulture Eye", The narrator explains how it deeply disturbs him as he gazes upon it and that it is a sight that makes his blood run cold. According to a website enotes.com, the vulture eye symbolizes the coming of death. The vulture is a huge flying bird and is the predator circling around a sickly animal or persons waiting until it dies so that it can consume the corpse. Therefore, the Old Man was nearing his death as he was watched from behind the shadows. Many other symbols appearing in the story are shadow, death, corpse, and heart. In Shadow Psychology from Wikipedia, "The shadow is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts". This in general can explain the person's most personal and inner feelings and our strong feelings usually cannot be openly expressed. However in the dream world, all feelings and strong desires can be fulfilled and expressed beyond the ordinary limits in the real world. One of the most well known psychologists, Carl Jung, notes that "the shadow sometimes overwhelms a person's actions; for example, when the conscious mind is shocked, confused, or paralyzed by indecision".

Works Cited

Holman and Snyder. “Edgar Allan Poe” About.com. web. 25 May 2010

Poe, Edgar. “The Tell-Tale Heart” PoeStories.com. web. 25 May 2010

“Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism” Wikipedia. 29 March 2010. web. 25 May 2010

“Shadow (Psychology)” Wikipedia. 20 May 2010. Web. 25 May 2010

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Blog 14: Stronger revision on blog 13

I believe that I must put more focus into the interpretation of symbols using psychoanalysis instead of just what the general meaning for it could be in the online dictionary of symbolism. I think using other related topics such as shadow psychology and neurosis will help further develop my essay.