Beginning Again

I really enjoyed the caus of this poem.  It was odd and had this wonderful rhythm to it.  What first struck me in the poem was the contradiction of the title...Beginning Again.  A beginning is once, to begin again is theoretically not possible.  Then, in reading I noticed a second contradiction in the second and third sentence: "...in a small badly lit room with no mirror.  A room whose floor ceiling and walls are all mirrors..."  I think it is referring to trying to see ones self, but not being able to see clearly what's happening.  Especially after the first part, which seemed to refer to trying to fix a mental illness or maybe a simple personality flaw.  Another thing I noticed was a reference to a poem by Li Po.  I looked up the short poem, which starts with: The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the cloud drains away.
So the second half obviously refers to starting anew.  I think the whole poem is about wanting to change something about yourself, about wanting to fix something...but not knowing how or if.

Heart of Darkness

I'm pretty confused by this book.  Because nearly the whole thing was written as one long monologue it was written very randomly.  Thoughts seemed to come from nowhere and leave quickly; it was very much a train of thought.  I'm just amazed at how he built up Kurtz.  He started off being a figure others looked up too.  Then, he became an amazing man that the narrator loved too.  But he was also a mysterious, crazy man; one who didn't want to leave a land of savages. Then, he just dies.  After that, we found out he was in love...or she was in love with him.  Who knows.  Kurtz was an odd, impressive man.  So was the story...odd, but impressive and somehow mesmerizing as you tried to figure out the mental state of these men.

The Great Gatsby

Honestly, I didn't like this book that much.  It seemed a little to "soap opera" for my taste, and I didn't like the characters.  I thought Gatsby was way to focused on getting lots of money to impress an old girlfriend.  I thought Nick was unemotional and had no drive to do anything.  He would just go wander around parties, work, and hang out with a girl he didn't even really like.  And Mr. B. was just a jealous, cheating man.  He wanted his mistress and his wife.  Although, the end was pretty interesting. Tom's wife ends up killing Tom's mistress when she doesn't even know her. Pretty crazy, and made the book a little less boring.  But besides disliking the characters, I felt bad for them.  It seemed none of them could be themselves.  They were always trying to prove something.  Like Gatsby, dealing in illegal things, just to get enough money to try to impress Daisy.  After reading this book, I'm glad I didn't live in the 20's.

Kite Runner

The Kite Runner was the first book I read this summer, and I have to say I liked it.  The beginning seemed long and boring...I was afraid the whole book would be like that.  But it did get interesting, sad, but interesting.  At first I really did not like the main character; I thought he was a coward and a bit pathetic.  But somehow as the book went on I started to understand him, and hate him a little less. I was just impressed with how far he went for redemption and how badly he wanted to fix, in some way, what he had done...or not done.  I think some things are forgivable, especially at a young age.  And this book really showed an emotional side to trying to find redemption for a mistake.