Final Presentation

 

Here is a video I made to show the importance of commas from our lesson in week 11. Hope you enjoy.

Technology

 

Online learning this semester has been a great experience. The way this course is designed is significantly different than a traditional in class course. The major difference with online learning compared to in person learning is that nearly everything is virtual. If a student wants to ask a teacher a question or have the teacher check a paper, it is done via the internet rather than in person. For many students this can be particularly challenging. I happened to be fortunate enough to have done much of my high school learning through online classes, so this transition was not terribly difficult for me.

The disadvantages I think are that the students do not have the opportunity to learn in a "hands on" environment. This is a hard concept to grasp. Motivation and self-discipline play a large role in the online experience. On the flip-side, the benefits are that the course is for the most part self-paced and creative in style. I can honestly say, having taken 30 or so online course in the past couple of years, this particular course is one of the most creative. The blog system I feel is the catalyst behind this. The blog allows students to express themselves in a way different than most classes afford. This creativity aspect is a huge plus for this course.

The blog was the most beneficial and the most enjoyable part of this course. Having to write a paper just about every week seemed a lot less intense because of this blog. I love the fact that as a student we were able to express our own unique characteristics, not only through our writing, but also in the diversity of assignments. I don't think I've ever felt that I had this freedom before in a course, whether online or in person. I will more than likely use this new found skill in blogging in the near future. I think this a great platform to express ideas and opinions. Thank you Professor Cline for not just assigning assignments with due dates, but instead making this course a fun experience. It is greatly appreciated!

For more information on blogging in general, click here.

Technology

End of Semester Post

This semester has been an interesting one full of new experiences. This semester I took all my classes online. I did not anticipate learning as much as I have this semester through each of my online courses. I did a year and a half of my high school schooling online and it was similar in many ways to the learning style that is incorporated in college online learning. However, the technology is now more advanced than the methods we used in high school.

In this English course in particular, we did not have a blog like this one set up. This blog I think was the best part of the course. This blog not only allowed for each of us to express ourselves individually, but it also allowed us to collaborate together with our ideas. Many times when I was struggling to understand something I was able to communicate through my blog with classmates and have a firmer grasp on the concept I was misunderstanding. Having a friendly online environment to do this is crucial.

Some of my main challenges in this course were not procrastinating and specifically focusing on what each assignment was asking. Often times I will wait until Sunday to finish up my papers. This was and still is the general trend by which I submitted my papers each week. However, this class helped point to me that this could later become a problem. Consequently I am working on no longer procrastinating and have made great improvement. Staying focused on what each particular paper was asking was another challenge I encountered in this class. The writing styles that we were required to write in were not my particular favorite. This caused me to give a little extra attention to staying on topic and in character concerning writing style.

Overall I have enjoyed this English 102 course. I have had the privilege of participating with many great classmates this semester. I have learned how to be a more effective writer as well as how to create a blog. Thank you for this course.

-Rysen Barnett

Who Am I?

Rysen Barnett

English 102

Cline

22 April 2012 

Who Am I?

The Ryan Bingham story is very unique, but yet not so rare in the hearts of many people in America today. Ryan Bingham spends his days, nights, weeks, months, and years in pursuit of what is to him and admirable achievement. In the novel the benchmark Ryan is seeking is one million frequent flyer miles and in the film it is ten million miles. His pursuit, although for the majority of the reading and film seem very lofty and important, by the end are just the opposite, irrelevant and materialistic. Though the presentation of this story is presented very differently between the novel and movie, the main idea is the same. Up in the Air is about a man who has built a false reality around himself in an effort to muse the seemingly aimless endeavor that is life. Our society has come to follow the path that Ryan Bingham first did, unfortunately many people’s lives ultimately finish on that same path.

In the film Ryan Bingham is a middle aged man who for a living flies from city to city firing people. By constantly being in the air flying, Ryan is able to accumulate an enormous amount of frequent flyer miles. His ultimate pursuit in life is to reach ten million miles. This pursuit and this life in “Airworld” as Bingham calls it, is all he knows. Back home Ryan has a small family that consists of his two sisters, one of whom is about to be married. However, his siblings feel no attachment towards Ryan because he is gone nearly the entire year. Ryan casually states, “Last year I was in the air three hundred and twenty two days, which means I spent forty three lousy days at home” (Reitman). This remark shows the nature of Ryan’s shallowness. He is a man who is undoubtedly materialistic. Although for a time this shallowness is tolerated by Ryan himself, and his goal seen as a worthy cause, eventually he realizes he has been living in a dream world rather than Airworld. The movie helps bring this revelation about through Ryan’s relationships with Alex and Natalie, the novel does it a slightly different way. Eventually Ryan comes to realization that life is better off spent enjoying it with someone and that intimate relationships are important. His internal and emotional journey are the same journeys that many people choose to avoid or ignore in the United States today.

Works Cited

       Kirn, Walter. Up in the Air. New York: Anchor Books, 2001. Print. 

Reitman, Jason, dir. Up in the Air. Dreamworks, 2009. Film.

Up In the Air Intro Paragraph

 http://storyfanatic.com/articles/story-analysis/up-in-the-air

Ryan Bingham is in a desperate pursuit of obtaining one million frequent flyer miles through his current job. His story of traveling from airport to airport, and acquaintance to acquaintance on this pursuit is depicted in both a novel and movie. In the novel, Ryan is a more self seeking, lonely. isolated individual. In the movie he is much of the same however, there is the addition of his business partner that travels with him who also happens to be somewhat of an interest to Ryan. The way Ryan is depicted in the two stories is similar yet different. In the novel Ryan appears more bitter and greedy, in the movie however, Ryan's true emotions are more adequately expressed. Our society has come to be one of tolerance and acceptance, that is why we have the difference in emotions that are presented between the novel and movie.

Click here for a great website and more information on the novel you might not have considered.

Up in the Air

http://teaser-trailer.com/movie/up-in-the-air/

Initially I found "Up in the Air" a bit hard to read. The style in which the author writes is very different from any novel that I have read before. Many times the author will have one character answer his own question, this can get a little confusing in keeping track of dialogue. As I kept reading, and eventually got past the author's style, I started to enjoy the story. It is vague, dry and seemingly pointless in its intent, at least so far. This vague reading however is turning out to be what is actually intriguing me. I find the main character's story very interesting and meaningful. There are a lot of hidden emotions behind the main character that are not completely being revealed, just yet. I enjoy trying to interpret the psychological perspective of the main character as he lives a very unique and different life than many people. This novel is definitely a contrast from "Winter's Bone," but I hope to really get something out of it by the end of the story!

Here is a link to the movie portraying this novel! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/

April 1, 2012

Laura Cline, Instructor

Yavapai Community College

Prescott, AZ. 86305

Laura Cline,

     As we near the end of this English 102 course I have grown in several aspects as an online student.

I have learned better time management, improved study habits, and most importantly identified some of my weaknesses. My biggest challenge or weakness has been correcting the habit of waiting until the last minute to do assignments. Often times my schedule calls for me to do homework on Sundays, as that is a day where other than attending church, I am most available to study. This has many times taken an intense amount of dedication and sacrifice to complete assignments by the midnight deadline. At the same time however, I have found that working on this weakness has turned resulted into being my biggest success. I have a better sense of the need to periodically work on assignments rather than to let them accumulate towards the end of the week.

     The readings in this class have to my astonishment been a growing experience for me. I generally do not read literature such as Winter's Bone in my spare time, but I indeed received some positives from the novel. As any well written book immerses the reader in the author's thoughts, this book definitely placed the me in Ree's world. I better learned how people like Ree have such a different life than many of us and  in turn appreciated the novel more. I will probably not read many more novels like Winter's Bone in my life but I can honestly say I appreciated the book for what it is.

     Literary analysis is different from other types of writing I have had in college for several reasons. I feel the biggest difference with literary analysis is concentrating solely on what the author is seeking to convey. In most essays or other pieces of writing there is often some amount of opinion that goes into each essay. With literary analysis the writer is forced to first focus on what the author is conveying and then interpret the novel based on that. This is a little different from essays based on research or perhaps article response.

     My goals for the remainder of this course are to maintain my overall grade and to further improve on time management as well. I plan to improve on time management by completing my assignments a little earlier then I usually have. I also hope to have a similar experience with Up in the Air as I did with Winter's Bone. I look forward to what the remainder of this course has to offer.

Essay #3

Rysen Barnett

English 102

Cline

3/25/12           

Winter’s Bone Analysis

A price cannot be put on how important the unit of a family is. Families, whether good or bad, will produce children that grow into adults and will in turn have families of their own. One can be well educated at the finest schools, flourish financially, or have other desired possessions. However, if a person does not have a family, whether by blood, adoption, or figuratively, then that person truly has little in this world. Unfortunately there are too many families in today’s society that are broken, dysfunctional, and many that are torn apart by drugs. In a family there are specific roles to be played. A father has his responsibilities and a mother has hers. Children even share in some of the responsibility of the household. When the responsibilities of these roles are not properly distributed or heaved upon one person, the effects are horrific. Misplaced roles can affect a child’s psychological state, everyday choices, and all future decisions.

            It is clear within Winter’s Bone that Ree’s psychological state is a victim to her environment. The area a child grows up in will shape and mold that child. Ree is forced to be raised and raise her family within a meth induced culture. Due to this, much of Ree’s thinking and judgments are based on her experiences with her on family as they were on meth. For example, when Ree is riding with her relative to the place where her dad was last seen she harshly thinks he is driving somewhere secluded because he wants to have sex with her. This is a good example of how Ree’s thinking is skewed because her dysfunctional family has caused her to be defensive towards nearly all males. The way of thinking for a child who is under such circumstances such as Ree’s is very different than most. When Ree sees food she is not thinking if she herself is hungry or will be later, she is thinking about her brothers and mother as well. When Ree finds out that her house might be taken away she is not concerned with where she lives as much as she is concerned about her brothers and mother. A traditional teenage girl Ree’s age might worry about her social status, boyfriend, what college she wants to attend, hobbies, sports, etc. For Ree her sole concern is not with herself or her own needs, her concern and thoughts are for her brother and family as a whole. Her circumstances of poverty, as well as her being left to play the role of father, mother, sister, and sole provider of her household produce this way of thinking.

            Thoughts turn into actions. Ree is forced to have a sort of survival mentality as she goes through everyday life. All her decisions and actions within the novel are based on the negatives of the environment she is born into. Again, most children have choices set before them of attending school, maybe a part time job, sports, and perhaps chores. Ree’s responsibilities are to take care of her mentally incompetent mother, watch over her brothers, prepare them meals, teach them how to shoot, teach them how to hunt, clean, and survive on their own. Because Ree’s father left his family in the state he did, Ree being the oldest is forced to take the reins of the household and thus her actions and decisions become these instead of that of an ordinary teenage girl. Now there is no family that is perfect. Every family has their own problems. Every family will produce a child that is a product of that family’s characteristics. These characteristics are relational, financial, communication methods, size, religious views, political views, etc. The problem with Ree’s circumstance is that she is the product of a family that has an overwhelming sense of negativity and very dysfunctional. Basically her circumstances are affecting all her current decisions and actions.

            In addition to Ree’s present choices and decisions, her future ones are being affected as well. Ree states that she wants to go into the army. This may very well be a lifelong dream for Ree to serve her country through the military. However, I feel that her circumstances are more likely to have influenced her career choice. Being in the army provides nearly everything that Ree has never had in her life. Stability, guaranteed food and shelter, honor, respect, and even the closeness of a family. Either way she wants to get as far away from her current town as possible. This is all in part because she is overwhelmed with responsibility and the burden of running her household.

            Ree does not choose to be in these circumstances; rather she is hurled into them because her father abandons her family. Ree story is unfortunately today not an uncommon one. Many children are faced with overwhelming responsibilities because drugs have torn apart their family and changed all the roles.

Winter's Bone Article

 

http://briandoddonleadership.com/2010/11/21/8-tips-to-surviving-your-dysfunctional-family-during-the-holidays/

The article I chose was "Winter's Bone, Film Noir, Feminism". This article is about how "Winter's Bone" is a Film Noir meaning a crime drama. This piece is more of a review that focuses on the main points of  crime and feminism within the story. Feminism, it points out is one of the main focuses because the story is told from Ree's point of view. The women within the story share unique roles in their society that portray a strong feminist presence. The article observes the presence these women, especially Ree, have in the story.

It was hard to find an article that fit the topic I wanted. In fact it was difficult to find any articles at all. I read and stuck with this one because it addressed feminism, which fit into at least part of my topic. Examining the roles of male and female within this meth induced culture was what I was looking to observe. I feel this article addresses some of the important aspects of responsibility, abandonment, and abuse among women that I needed. I thought this article was sort of an introductory to the psychological aspect of roles that I was looking for, but a good start for research. I hope to find more in depth reviews that dive specifically into that topic. The psychological aspect between relationships is what I am hoping to find information on.

  

Link: http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/gender-roles-society-changing