September 1, 1939 (W.H Auden)

After reading this poem I've realized how World War II had an extraordinary impact in people's lives. Moreover, the author utilized the correct words to express exactly the depression's feelings society had. He described the damage that the war causes, not only physical, but in a psychological aspect. Auden had no problem to represent how people were feeling, due to in a way, he was part of the system, the war system.

I believe that this half part of the first stanza represents exactly how people felt;

Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Here, it is clearly represented how society felt; anger and fear because of this unfair war. Even though they were in calm and not doing any damage to the contrary side (Germany and allied), the darkness of their acts had negative consequences in innocent people. Individuals tried to live their lives normally during the day, going to work, sharing with others, being with their families, but in the night, when they had to go to their houses, was the moment when the bad aspects like fears, desperation, death and weepings raised. They could not scape from the war, because it was in people's mind, dreams and life.

As a sum of all the aspects, I believe Auden tried to imprint all his feelings in this poems. Maybe, he never thought that this enriching piece of work could bring so many controversial issues to nowadays' life. I really enjoyed reading and understanding it. There is no doubt I will use it in an EFL lesson.

Carolina's entry

To be honest I have to say that Carolina's entry fits completely with what I felt and thought about Virginia Woolf. Maybe, this situation happened because we almost share the same feelings and ideas about women's role in the world.

Virginia Woolf was an excellent writer who knew how to express herself and, the most important point, she could gain a place in the world by the publication of her works. Even though V. Woolf lived in a very controversial time, she had the possibility to communicate her thoughts and ideas through writing. Furthermore, she had their own place to write and the money to do so. I believe that the most important characteristic Virginia had was that she pursued and fought with all the stigmatisation society had against women. That is why, she decided to wrote about female roles and, in a way, compare them with men, so that people could realize that we are more than pretty faces who can stay at home taking care of our children.

I really liked the way Carolina connected Jane Austen with Virginia Woolf and how that connection made her reflect about female's situtation in previous years. I know that Carolina is a big fan of J. Austen and she admires and enjoys reading her works, so having thought about a close relation between these two amazing writers gave Carolina a more meaningful idea of females' writing. Carolina is always looking for interesting ideas and topics to write about. I have read all her entries and I believe she really has a gift to clearly express what she feels.

Jane Austen

For a long time, I have been a fan of Jane Austen’s novels. I have read almost all of them, and I really admire her for everything she accomplished. Virginia Woolf made me appreciate Jane Austen much more than I did. Woolf was the author I needed to support me in my enjoyment of Austen.

Jane Austen lived in a time where women could be nothing but daughters and housewives. She was a writer in a time where nothing could be expected out of a woman. However, she wrote 6 of the most beautiful novels in English although she had no money and no room. She is world-wide recognized and dearly loved. Woolf states in many parts of her essay that Jane Austen proved the world, and men, that women could perfectly write as good as men. In some extent, Woolf compares Austen to Mozart in the following quote: “For while Jane Austen breaks from melody to melody as Mozart from song to song...” Therefore her genius is as Mozart’s or Shakespeare’s, to whom she also compares Jane Austen.

“Here was a woman (Jane Austen) about the year 18oo writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching.” Thus, Jane Austen could write as the best of men and none of her conditions such as having no room, being poor, being interrupted and being a woman interfered in the complexity and richness of her writing.

The Waste Land by T.S Eliot

Honestly, it was very difficult for me to understand this poem. It has too much narrators and, sometimes, talks about things that, I know, I will never understand. Event though, there were some stanzas and parts that I understood and could get an image from them. What I got from this poem is that the main issue here was the period after the First World War and how its consequences and modernity were affecting peoples’ lives.

I found several elements and feelings inside the poem, such as sadness, nothingness, hopeless, fear which are very related with people’s mood in that time. In one hand, individuals felt so disappointed and full of doubts that nothing was clear, but unknown. This waste land was falling down in little pieces day by day, that’s why people felt so unprotected frustrated and doubtful about their future.

In my opinion I could say that Eliot represented and expressed himself so deeply in this poem that, in a way, I could imagine how people felt after the war. How could they create a sort of positive feeling if they only perceived pain and discourage to continue living their lives? I think we will never know until we live it.

The rocking-horse winner by D.H Lawrence

After reading this poem I could realize how important could be a mother to her child. In this case Paul was so concerned about the money problems his mother had that the only thing he wanted was helping her. Suddenly, he discovered that he could get some money with lucky so rides his little rocking-horse and figured out that it gave him the name of the winner horse in the races. He was so preoccupied about getting more and more money that he forgot about everything in his life and started riding the horse so fast and constantly that he got very ill and dies.

I believe that he wanted to help her mother so badly and replace the lack of a paternal image that he believe he was the provider of the family. I really don’t understand how a mother can permit a situation like this. It is supposed that a mother must provide and pay attention to every single need the child could have, but in these case was the other way around. The only consequence this situation causes was the child death, the mother changes money for the life of her own son.

I enjoyed reading this short story, but it has a lot of negative aspects of life. I think it is good to learn about your mistake and thinks that money is not everything in life. Money can help you to be happy but you can't buy happiness with it.

A room of one’s own by Virginia Woolf

Trough the pass of time, women had built and gain their own space in the world. During the time V. Woolf lived there was no space for women to express themselves.

A room of one’s own states that women had the same capacities that men had, they were able to write and think as men do. The problem was that they did not have the space to express themselves because, in a way, opportunities were close for them. Women did not have the chance to say what the really wanted to communicate. That is why, Virginia referred to several female authors that did not have too much impact in those times, due to the fact they were women. Male authors had lots of opportunities and were, in some point, more important and credible than women authors. Men had their own space, a place that was settled inside of the society. But, what happened with women? Their image and role was to take care of children, stay at home cooking, doing the cleaning but society never thought that they could develop other abilities like writing or belonging to a political party.

I believe that this essay, even though it was very controversial, changed people’s mind. It was very useful for me to know a little bit more about women in those times and the need to have their own place. I choose a quote from the poem that I think represents my post; "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."