In the play “A raisin in the sun,” the author picture Walter family cleverly. Walter believes the financial status will eliminate the difference between blackness and whiteness, which is ridiculous. All that he is thinking of is investing money to be rich. Lee has and daughter and son and both of them believe that their education will make the American dream true. The whole family including his wife with has suffered poverty and their goal is to get rid of this small room and having a better quality of life. Eventually, Lee lost most of his property because he was over-optimistic about investing money. Now he believes that his dignity, pride, and the love that this family carries are much important. Money does not make happiness as long as you do not know what is the meaning of it.

In this novella, there are three main characters Babo, the leader of the slave revolt, Benito Cereno, the controlled Spanish captain, and Amasa Delano, the white captain who stopped this slave revolt. On the San Dominick abroad Melville drew the failed slave revolt. In my opinion in the end this devastating story indicates how ridiculous the social ideology was. Benito Cereno was the spark for the slave revolt on the board and he wanted to stop this chaos with his team. I feel really sorry for the trauma he had to face emotionally and physically and on top of that, he has been killed for no reason. Also, unfortunately, Captain Delano and Babo lost their life in an unreasonable harmful fight. It is depressing what happened for all of these characters but I understand the circumstances they’ve been through at this time. The society’s “values” put a pressure where they had no better decision to be made in this situation. I blame society’s ideology more than I blame the characters in this story in this situation. Benito Cereno with his team fought for his own freedom and this very understandable. All he wants is to be treated like anybody else. On the other side Amasa Delno the white captain stopped this revolt for the values he had been raised on, where the advantages and privileges he has as a white person.

According to chapter 6, the plot does a significant element to describe the story. There are many methods to tell a story, where the writer can be the first person and that gives a sense of reality to the story. Using flashback to inspire the audience’s thoughts. Also, The author could be the narrator (The Third-person) what is way more interesting to the reader.  The plot is effective to express the author’s emotions, add suspense to the story, attach the reader’s attention, picture the situation, and reinforce the ideas and the imagination of the reader. I tend to the Action and Drama plays or movies where the writer gives the opportunities to the audience to predict and imaging the next move of the movie. I believe this is a particular type of literature that we already read about in the previous lectures where the audience’s knowledge plays a critical part to receive the message and understand the concept and the details. I believe each of us has his/her own story but the point here is (how). How you can tell to make it sounds like a story.  How you will create a whole structure as a complete masterpiece, not a fraction.

In general, the plot gives the story meaning and it is super powerful to connects the story parts that make it looks or sounds like a story. In addition, it fills the missing parts that keep it clear for the audience to understand.  Culler said that gives the reader a sense of satisfaction and happiness. But I prefer literature where we have space for imaging what happened and predict what will happen where understanding the concept rely on the reader and the writer’s knowledge combined.

In Chapter 5 “Rhetoric, Poetics and Poetry” by Jonathan Culler, Culler has discussed the relationship between rhetoric, poetic, and poetry. He introduces four master tropes which are metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony.  A metaphor is the most powerful way to express the author’s ideas and emotions. And it is when you compare something to something else differently. By reading the poem called “Diving into the wreck” by Adrienne Rich, she uses metaphor several over the poem, “There is a ladder.The ladder is always there” the ladder here is what the society believes in the woman rights and her role as a part of it.  “book of myths” is the old fashioned ideas for how should the woman react and sideline her role as apart of the society. She mentioned the camera when you dive under the sea to explore the wreck to document what you will see, “treasure ” is the real heritage of the woman as a crucial part of the society in the history.  So the poem here is a very effective literature voice for the woman right, and a metaphor all over the poem inspires the reader’s imagination, which made the ideas of the writer easier to understand.

In chapter 2 of “What is Literature and Does it Matter?” by Jonathan Culler, he characterizes the literature from different points. but I found the angle of the literature as a fictional the most interesting point. The literature relies on speaker, actors, events, and an implied audience (an audience that takes shape through the work’s decisions about what must be explained and what the audience is presumed to know)”. Because of this, people analyze an see the literature differently. It is not just about what the author angle but the audience experience also. And the time frame plays a significant role in what message you will receive. In addition, what are your culture and the environment that you raised? All these angles combined impact the conclusion you would have. So the author might express ideas but the imagination of the audience would conclude differently.

I also feel fiction helps us dive deeper to understands what behinds the literature.

Arabic is my first language and I have studied Arabic literature which has the same concepts where the audience should dig deeper to realize the ideas and what the author wants to express.  Literature makes me more fluent in the language and it reflects the culture and the history of the country where you can communicate better with society.

According to the chapter, one of the most crucial points is there are three different standards of meaning. First is what the word means literally. Secondly, consider what other meanings the word may include. And thirdly what the word actually means at the content of the text. So the reader has to look at the whole picture to understand the meaning of it, such as what is the speaker means by the word in this sentence and in this content specifically. because the same sentence might have different meanings in the same content so we have to be aware of that.

In addition “language and thought.” was more interesting for me that is because language is a tool to express our ideas. Arabic is my native language and I feel more comfortable using it to analyze situations or using the same word in different circumstances and it makes a perfect sense which I don’t think about English. English is a very scientific language and it is not that rich to express feelings or ideas. and the structure of the sentence has a significant difference so I struggled to learn English and I understand exactly what the author means at this point.

1. After reading the chapter “what is literature and does it matter” written by Jonathan Culler, in my opinion we see literature in many different forms such as plays, poetry, and novels. It reflects the culture and represents the civilization and the education of the society or the country and expresses what people believe and how they see the world at this time frame. Literature also goes deeply and indicates the affairs that people interface or have a variety of opinions about it. However, there is no specific definition for literature, what you may consider as a literature some people may not. It does not have a standard to decide what is literature and what is not, also some of it in between. It depends on the background, education, and knowledge you have. So even if the same content is read by different people, every person will have his own way to understand what is behind it. 

2. the question that sticks in my mind is why the literature is not clear to define it?