A present given by Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf was certainly a woman whose thoughts and position to face life were ahead of time. Due to the fact that in the 1920’s women were only devoted to raise their children, therefore to be a good mother and wife, they could hardly read or spend time on activities of their own interest, this is why were not thought as good writers or as good thinkers, either. In the essay “A room on one’s own” it was easy to realize about her inner thoughts about descrimination towars women’s capacities and her struggle for women’s rights to express their ideas through writing, as it had always been for men. However, what she wanted to reach, indeed, was a complement between women and men’s contributions to lead human being’s minds to go beyond the scope of their conceptions.

While the time went by, several changes started to happen. The need to put in paper their thoughts since the time they were allowed to vote, therefore to think on their own, was current than ever. They no longer felt themselves as simple housekeepers. Then, they showed their hidden talents in the different fields of study, demonstrating a chauvinist society that they could be as good as men, or even better.

In my personal opinion, women who started writing, ran up the flag of change and freedom for their silent minds, they challenged prejudices and the fear of being discriminated just because they were women. From those days up to now, I think it has been a great pleasure (and for me it is) to feel identified with books about women written by a woman.

Post Correction 2 ("The accidents that damage society")

So far, it has been almost impossible not to relate and to complement what we have learned in both of our courses of Literature. How much can we get to know an author from his/her work? Is it really necessary to read their biographical background first in order to get the main points of their writing, in this case? According to our experience up to now, it seems that yes, it is necessary. That is how we’ve had the approach to Mary Shelley, and Poe as well.As long as I read “The Signalman” by Dickens, I could picture a very lonely Dickens immersed in that kind of job, in which the train and its atmosphere represented nothing but his life; but also his lacks, fears, pains, etc all what he wanted to appear as a hollow, or invinsible. This is why all what was harmful for his feelings, became ghosts. Isn’t it that simmilar to real life? Even though those things that the Signal Man saw were ghosts, indeed, we’d wished our problems and frights were ghosts as well.I believe that it was easy to relate this Dickens’ piece of writing to a social issue, as it was with Oliver Twist, however, both show how decadent society might turn into, which was mainly depicted in the accidents that the Signal man frequently saw.

Post Correction ("I don't care if he is good, I care if he is lucky")

After reading this story by DH Lawrence, I immediately related it to the movie "Match Point" by Woody Allen (the title of the post is taken form there, by the way), where the characters, especially the protagonist puts so much emphasis on the luck issue, actually, that is one of the topics beyond the movie. All members of the family were so concerned about not having money, and not being able to keep up with the lifestyle they used to have, either, which was a consequence of not being lucky people. This was such a big issue for this family because it made them feel tremendously unhappy, especially when it is about the relationship between mother and children. How can someone pretend to make a living by taking for granted that luck will be in favor, instead of hard work and effort?

Despite the fact that it seems a clear short story, I think it is not easy reading at all. It has many interpretations; for me, the parents' behaviour towards their children depicted lack of awareness, and love, of course. It is unbelievable that two grown up people had raised their children with those kinds of values and way of thinking. As the case of the mother, it becomes really hard for me to picture myself as a future mother unable to love my children. What this family was invloved in was a very deep psychological trouble...

How powerful an image can be

The name of the fifth part of the poem called: "What the thunder said" best reflects the meaning of this poem by T.S.Eliot, in my point of view. "What the thunder said" can be interpreted as a prediction of the consequences of a catastrophe. Although this poem tells about nature mainly, this catastrophe might not only be a physical one, but an emotional one based on how decadent our society has turned into. That is why, as soon as we see the picture, we can involve feelings such as: desolation, hopeless, loneliness, fear, destruction, suffering, etc.

Nevertheless, whenever any kind of catastrophe passes by, there are still hopeful feelings or thoughts like love, because love is what really moves and touches people for different several things, like loving among each other, the willing for doing things, for reconstructing, for accepting, etc.

A simmilar impression I had when I first saw the picture related to the poem. At first sight , it was full of dull colours and a very grey surrounding with nothing but garbage around, but then I saw those two people very close to each other with all that paper around in that free area which was maybe needed to reconstruct something or just to think with no distractions.