Love in "First Love"

Zinaida's love in "First Love" is very hard to understand. She toys with all of her "suitors" and plays with their emotions, pretending to be in love with each of them at different times. However, she never falls in love with any of them, and she falls in love with Vladimir's father, Pyotr, who doesn't even respect her most of the time. She uses love with younger boys to cover up her affection of Vladimir's father. Her first love is Pyotr, but she uses the other men (and boys) in her life to allow her to secretly fall in love with an unexpected person, Pyotr.

"First Love" Romantic Elements

"First Love" by Ivan Turgenev is part of the movement of Romanticism, as it presents a story of love and it causes the reader to assess the values and actions of the characters, thus looking into human nature and its inevitable deviations.

Ivan Turgenev hopes, by writing this piece of literature, the audience will be interested in the characteristic development of each character. By intending to clarify the importance of the characters' qualities and natural instincts, Turgenev's "First Love" exemplifies the methods and values championed by the Romantic period in literature. The strangeness of the characters and their interactions with each other gives deep meaning to the analysis of their nature, which is what Romanticism tries to bring out in its literature.

My Most Important Thing

The most special object for me is the television in my house. It is a 48-inch, flat-screen, and it has a surround-sound system that allows for maximum audio experience. This television is very important in my daily life, not only because it provides me entertainment, but also because it allows me to escape from my extensively busy life. I can relax and be happy as a result of that TV, so it provides me great comfort as I desire to escape from the formalities of daily life. I feel very happy that it is there for me to easily turn on, and it even has a record feature so I can record my favorite shows, games, and programs. It really gives me as much satisfaction as any physical object could, and I am thankful it is there for me to use.

If I lost this item, I would feel the pressures of daily life more and more, and I would probably be overwhelmed emotionally by the physically and mentally tolling effects of school and self-actualization. I would no longer have an outlet to relax and not think about my everlasting duties as a son, student, athlete, and college-aspiring senior. A significant event that would happen if I lost this TV would probably be an increased interest in studying, keeping track of events in the world, and I would probably try to self-transcend into the community to try to find service projects in which I could partake.

If I were to lose this TV, I would probably end up finding satisfaction in a different object or activity, such as becoming more attached to sports, service, religion, politics, or independent learning. I would ultimately feel the satisfaction I had received from the TV from another source, and I might actually receive more satisfaction than I had planned. However, every time I would be satisfied, I would be reminded of the TV I had lost, but I would feel gratification from the new things I had explored and involved myself in.

I Am: The Nose

I gotta get away from this idiot, Kovalev. I'm sick of seeing him when I look in the mirror every day. All he does is use me to sniff things, and some of them smell absolutely vile. He never returns any favors to me, even though I am such a large part of his life. He takes me for granted, and I think the only time he ever pays attention to me is when he picks me. I'm going to hop off this guy's ugly face and hide so he never finds me again.

I look like something, right? I'm tan in color and I look sort of like a pyramid. I bet I could hide in a batch of baked bread, and no one would ever find me. That's what I'll do--I'll sniff about a batch of cooking bread and hide in the container that the baker uses to preserve that bread. Let me just wait till this jerk falls asleep, and I'll get outta here!

Kovalev's asleep now, and I'm out the door! I remember that barber, Ivan, saying that his wife loves to cook bread, so I'll go find his vault of bread and chill in there forever.

Yes! I've arrived. It's really nice and dark in this barrel. I'm safe.

Oh God! This idiot barber Ivan just picked me up and is about to cut me! I better take off my disguise as a piece of bread and reveal myself as a nose. Wait! Where is he taking me?! Out the door, down the street, on top of the bridge: he's going to throw me off! AHHHHHHHH!!!!! Splash.

I died that day, but I came back in my next life as a new form of nose--a governmental officer for the Nose Governmental Society. Every day I would ride in my carraige and be escorted by my nose-serfs around town, but one day I saw my previous owner, Kovalev, and he recognized me and approached me. He complained and asked me to get back on his face, so I got in my carraige and told my slave-serfs to book it out of there.

A couple days later, I started to hear announcements about my wanted status. A police officer busted down the door to my Nose Palace, came in, and shot me. He brought me back to Kovalev as dead as a doorknob. Everything after that was a blur. I came back in my next life as my original state of nose--the regular one people take for granted all the time. I was back on Kovalev's face, and I was doomed to a life of sniffing and getting picked on (literally) every day. );

"The Nose" by Gogol

"The Nose" by Nikolai Gogol is a very strange story, as it comprises of a man named Ivan Yakovlevich finding a nose in his bread. He does not know whose it is or where it came from, so he throws it off a bridge. Major Kovalev, who wakes up one morning to a face without a nose, simultaneously panics and searches for his nose. After confronting his nose, who takes the form of a city officer and runs away, Kovalev attempts to spread word of his lost nose by advertising the tragedy in the paper. However, a police officer came to his house one day and delivered his nose back to him, but Kovalev could not reattach it, no matter how hard he tried. He desires that a doctor perform surgery to reattach it, but the doctor does not believe this option to be the most beneficial. One morning, Kovalev wakes up and discovers that his nose is back, attached, and as good as new.

This story is very interesting because Gogol uses components of Magical Realism in his piece of literature. The fact that a person finds a nose in his bread and that a different person magically lost his nose without a reason. Kovalev attempts to find his nose just like any other random object he might lose, which incorporates the realist aspect of Magical Realism. Very interesting, indeed.

Love letter option 1: From the obsessed man to the object of his affection

Dearest,

Oh how my heart rumbles with sound
when I think of your beautiful face.
I feel as if I could fly the whole world round
as I am captured by your grace.
Ne'er have I felt so dearly
about a woman most perfect nearly,
who has sped to my heart with unbelievable pace!

No other being could replace thee madame.
Always know that I will be so enamoured.
Like the wind blows at the beach, throwing the sand,
I will race towards you, shining maiden of glamour.
Although I've just met you
I know you're the one
That will light up my nights, and shade me from sun.

Be still! my only, my one, not mistaken
This letter may cause me uncomfortable ridicule.
No need to worry, you are in safe haven,
I'm taking a chance, a huge risk for you.
I'm out of my comfort
but still I dream
that you will discover that I'm for you, you're for me.

*Note of Caution: This love letter is not intended for my readers, because Ms. Lenart is the only one who reads my posts. So, Mr. Bedea can rest assured tonight. Thank you for your time and understanding.*

Learning about Russia!

I thought the most interesting topics we discussed about Russia were its history, present culture, and the role of religion in determining the general Russian character. I cannot choose one topic, mainly because these three elements are all inter-related.

Because I have taken a European History course in high school, I thought it very refreshing to reinfoce some of the knowledge I had about Russian History, and I learned quite a bit and linked multiple events together as a result of my research. I also learned a great deal about early, pre-Czarist Russian history from Jakobi and Eric's part of our presentation.

I enjoyed Hayden's and Minna's presentation because it talked about present-day Russian customs, culture, and "fast-facts." This information was very interesting, useful, and applicable in today's world, and it gave me insight about the nationalistic sentiments in Russia that deem Russia's history as the utmost important characteristic that defines a Russian person.

The religion presentation that Kellar, Jon, and Simon did was very relevant also. Russian Orthodoxy is the most popular religion in Russia, and this version of Christianity relates to how Russians act, view themselves, and view other people. It was interesting to learn about the progression Russian Orthodoxy went through to become the biggest religion in Russia, and I'm glad that the religion has ties into world history and present-day pertinence.

Onegin Book I

This will be a very long, confusing novel to read. As I was reading Book I frantically, fifteen minutes before class started, the story started to fuse together. The order of the story was very jumbled, but I figured out that Pushkin, the author, is basically defining the society in which Onegin lives in Book I. Describing his childhood, background, and present lifestyle, Pushkin offers a basis on which the reader will, presumably, judge the subsequant plot. Book I was not the plot--it was the reason the plot happens the way does. Pushkin sets the scene for his novel in Book I, and I am interested to see if I can understand the next books.

The rhyming scheme is certainly different. The rhythm is best served if it is read quickly; although each line does not rhyme, the rhythm flows and rhyming words can be detected if the reader reads the text with pace.

Second Semester: Transition to Russian Literature

The title says it all. Hooray!

The Hitchhiking Game

"The Hitchhiking Game" written by Milan Kundera is a story about two lovers on their first vacation together. On the road to their destination, the young man stops at the girl's request. She needs to go use the restroom, but she feels more comfortable not explicitly telling him her need. As she finishes up using the restroom, she starts walking down the road, so the young man stops to pick her up a couple hundred feet towards their destination. He pretends to pick her up as a hitchhiker, and at first she doesn't enjoy the game at all. But, she continues with the game, and he does too. After a while the two choose to take a road that would not end up taking them to their destination at all, and here the game is taken to a different level. The two become engrossed in the game: the girl feels like she can stop at any minute (although she enjoys the feeling of being sexually comfortable with her new, sensual self), but the boy becomes transformed by the game and cannot snap out of its effect. Ultimately, the two continue with the game, which takes them to a bedroom above a restaurant, where the two engage in sexual intercourse, which is not filled with any remote slightness of love. This act is where the girl crosses her boundary, and the young man did not change one bit. They finish their act of sexual intercourse, and they lay on the bed beside one another, except not touching. The girl is heartbroken, having given up the game after it got too serious, and the boy is indifferent, still caught up in the mysticism and magic of the game. The story ends with the sentence, "There were still thirteen days left on their vacation," which makes the reader confused as to the content of their continued relationship. Kundera leaves the conclusion of the story up to the reader for his/her own decision.

Time Travel in Slaughterhouse 5

I thought our discussion the other day on time travel was very interesting, but I still think most of it is speculation and the use of random examples to explain a theory. But who knows, in an alternate universe, I might be wrong. I do find this topic quite stimulating, however, and I talked more about it with Chris later that day at lunch. He helped me understand it a little better as time travel pertains to the fourth dimmension and the speed of light. I think Kurt Vonnegut explored the early theories of time travel in his book Slaughterhouse Five, but I think he probably stumbled upon some of the things that we discovered in class by chance.