Blog Reflection Essay

This class came off as extremely intimidating, not just the course description, but the syllabus as well. There was more work in this English class than pretty much any other English class I’ve taken. There was also a ton of writing (and as a Creative Writing major, not the fun kind). Writing about what I read helped me think deeper and understand more about the assigned material. Because of this, I had more ideas to write about and generally did a better job. The comments I posted on others’ blog were pretty informative and, if they were read, could have helped my peers understand or think about the material differently. I believe I did a good job commenting to my peer’s blogs. Inversely, while a few of my peer’s comments did make me think about things I hadn’t before, by and large I did not find them terribly helpful. Not only did I not get as many comments as I would’ve liked, but those I got felt vague and offered little critique. All in all, they did not contribute much to my learning.


As for the evolution of my blog writing…early on, my posts were very straight-forward but did not delve much deeper into the subject material. I did not think very hard about the topics being presented. As time went by, my posts delved deeper and deeper into the topics (and got much longer in length) and more time had to be devoted to them. I believe this was because I was learning more…from other student’s posts, assignments, professor’s comments, etc. This caused me to examine my writings and my work more deeply.


When writing, I imagined my fellow students as well as the professor as the audience. This effected how I wrote because I was careful how I worded things and what I said. I included more than I normally would, since I viewed it as an assignment and not just me sitting down and writing something and posting it to a blog. It was more grammatically complex and thoroughly spellchecked than my normal writing. However, when looking all of my blog material over, I’m pretty well satisfied with it. I think I did a good job. My second Summary/Application assignment is my best/strongest post because I knew how to handle the assignment and how to handle the reading for the assignment, since I’d done one more before. This experience really helped me out. My weakest/worst post was probably my first Summary/Application assignment because I had no idea what I was doing and had to re-do the assignment. I got a terrible grade on it. Most of my other reading responses were “in-between” because it was very much a “Question-Answer”-type of post. There was very little to be awesome or mediocre about here.


I did know that the blog could be read by anyone, but for some reason, it never really affected my writing. It never spooked me or made me prouder of what I wrote. Blog writing just is what it is and that’s how I took it. I’ve written for student-run publications before (and still do), so the public reading my work is not what rattles me. The class reading and discussing what I wrote specifically, however, might. If we’re talking about everyone’s work in general, though, it becomes much less intimidating…but that’s just me.


The amount of work I had to do for this class felt disproportionate to the amount of credit I’ll end up receiving. This definitely felt more like a five-credit-hours course for me. I enjoyed the professor and the topics presented. I really liked the Native American literature we read. I do feel like too much was tried to fit into this class. Perhaps the class should have only focused on one novel, rather than two? (Just a suggestion.)This class has been really difficult and I’m worried about what grade I’ll end up getting. I think the quality of my work has been (overall) excellent, though. I’m optimistic.

Introduction to My Final Paper

Jessica Webb
ENG 254
Professor Rouzie
Tuesday, June 2, 2009


Linear vs. Cyclical Concepts of Time in Sherman Alexie’s TLRATFIH

My researched argument paper will focus on concepts of time as presented in Sherman Alexie’s “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”; specifically, it will focus on how Alexie used the Native American cyclical view of time versus the Judeo-Christian linear view of time to show differences in basic philosophies between cultures. This researched argument paper searches to prove that not only was the native author aware of this basic cultural difference, but also will attempt to argue that Sherman Alexie used this difference in basic worldviews as another sort of cultural ‘background noise’ in some of his stories in his novel to re-enforce and/or conflict with certain points to hit his points home to the reader. I will also argue that Native Americans do not apply the passing of time the same way Western cultures do.

Not only is the basic worldview/philosophy different, but it is also applied in different ways. To quote Sherman Alexie’s novel: "Indians never need to wear a watch because your skeletons will always remind you about the time. See, it is always now. That's what Indian time is. The past, the future. All of it is wrapped up in the now. That's how it is. We are trapped in the now" (Alexie 22). This is a part of what I wish to argue. There is yet one more part of my paper’s argument that I will attempt to explore. What is one culture’s reactions to the philosophical views of time of the other and visa-versa? To again quote Alexie’s novel: "I remembered watches. They measured time in seconds, minutes, hours. They measured time exactly, coldly. I measure time with my breath, the sound of my hands across my own skin. I make mistakes" (Alexie 109). It is seen here that it gives Victor a sense of dislocation. Does it do the same for a white person looking in? That is the last topic I will attempt to explore.

List of Potential Final Paper Sources (10)

Bastian, Dawn, and Judy Mitchell. Handbook of Native American Mythology (World Mythology). Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004.

Grassian, Daniel. Understanding Sherman Alexie. Columbia, S.C: University of South Carolina P, 2005.

Heidegger, Martin. History of the Concept of Time : Prolegomena. Trans. Theodore Kisiel. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992.

"Linear Time and Cyclical Time." Time and God. 02 June 2009. .

Moore, Kathleen D., Kurt Peters, Ted Jojola, and Amber Lacy, eds. How It Is: The Native American Philosophy of V. F. Cordova. New York: University of Arizona P, 2007.

Rovelli, Carlo. Metaphysics: The Big Questions (Philosophy, the Big Questions). Grand Rapids: Blackwell Limited, 1998.

Teichmann, Roger. The Concept of Time. New York: St. Martin's P, Scholarly and Reference Division, 1995.

Waters, Anne S., ed. American Indian Thought. Grand Rapids: Blackwell Limited, 2003.

Yunkaporta, Tyson. "Linear vs. Circular Logic: Conflict Between Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Logic Systems | Suite101.com". Aboriginal Rights (general): Indigenous heritage and Aboriginal identity worldwide from an historical perspective - land, human and intellectual rights and linguistic and cultural preservation. | Suite101.com. 11 June 2006. 02 June 2009. .

Zimmerman, Larry J., and Brian L. Molyneaux. Native North America. Boston: Little, Brown, 1996.