This class was an extremely big struggle for me.  I have had a very hard time with some of the assignments.  The main reasons that I have had such a hard time are, I am too logical and literal for poetry; I don’t like saying “this is what the author means…” and I just suck at comparing two different types of writings.  These are some of my biggest weaknesses, so English 102 is just about the limit of my patience.  I have been stressed since day one of this class.  I am not a writer, I do not aspire to write, and I do not want to judge what other people write.  For me this is just another class that I need to pass so I can do what I enjoy.  That is what has challenged me so far.  I would have to say that my greatest success has been the fact that I didn’t drop the class.  I would also say that I have been successful in getting a good grade. 

The readings in this class have very much been outside the realm of my typical reading.  I really enjoyed Tim O’Brien, his book The Things They Carried has really opened my eyes to some realities of the Vietnam War.  I think I will keep that book so my kids can read it when they get older.  I have never liked poetry and I still dislike it.  As far as the play we read, I am not sure that I will seek out anything else by Sean Huze.  Literary analysis is very different from the other types of writing that I have done in college.  I think the big difference is that with the other writing I have done it has been factual writing and literary analysis is more of using the writings to support your opinion.  I am not a fan of writing, let alone writing my opinion of another’s writing. In the second half of the year it is my goal to continue with good getting good grades and to become more comfortable with analyzing writing.

Sean Huze Response

            My initial response to this is not very nice.  I think that there are a lot of great stories in the play that have a right to be told.  We all know that soldiers at war can out-swear a sailor any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  I think that the use of profanity in this play is far beyond excessive.  The very same message could have been portrayed with way less than half of the profanity.  I don’t mind reading the foul language every now and then, but to have some conjugated form of the word “fuck” every five or six words is no less than repulsive.  I felt like I had to take a shower after I read it.  I remember the stories having a huge impact on those that they involved, but I don’t remember the stories, just the language.  I feel that the writer, Sean Huze, was not a writer, rather someone who wrote some words and called it a play.  I know that war is abrasive, cruel, and uncaring but move onto something other than the swearing.  Yes I am an adult and I have heard and said all of these profane words before; that doesn’t mean I want to read them.  Language of this nature stays in your head, now and I am sure in many years to come when this play or Sean Huze come up in conversation all I will think of is the nasty language.  The characters in the play seem very real, as I am sure they are.  I felt that I could connect with the characters because they were people have similar thoughts and feelings that I think I might have in similar situation.  There was one character in one of the stories that I felt bad for.  Private First Class Weems.  In the story there are two other soldiers gambling and one says he is done.  The other is egging him on to keep playing.  PFC Weems says, “Don’t listen to him man.  He is just trying to get the rest of your cash.” (Huze 11).  After this comment is made both of the soldiers that had been throwing dice laid into him with harsh comments.  He simply made a remark of an obvious nature and he was ridiculed for it.  This made me feel bad for him.  All in all I think that given future chances to read Sean Huze, I would have to decline them.  This is only my opinion, there are other opinions of Sean  Huze. 

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