English 253
May 10 Presentation Responses

Group 11

Group 11’s presentation was the most meaningful to me because it was lively, entertaining and factual. Right off the bat, the name of their presentation made me question what I would do if I only had a year to live. Before reading Kafka’s story “The Metamorphosis”, I never would have considered what life would have been like as a cockroach.  Group 11 did an excellent job paralleling events in Kafka’s story as well as keeping the theme of their presentation Kafkaesque. I enjoyed following along with the life of the cockroach and learned a lot from the group’s fun cockroach facts. A few facts that stood out to me were: cockroaches sleep about 75% of their life, they have a 10 second memory, and that they can live without their head for nine days.  I liked Group 11’s style of presenting; they split up who spoke during the presentation.  The women read the cockroaches story, while the men threw in random cockroach facts.  Splitting the speaking up in this way made it easy to follow along with both aspects of the presentation and not get distracted by one or the other. The men in the group were very suited to be stating the fun facts.  Although some of the facts were disturbing, they set the audience at ease by being upbeat.  The women did a great job of presenting the cockroach’s journey, allowing the audience to feel as if they were in the cockroach’s shoes.

My favorite presentation was group 11. This group rewrote the ending of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The ending was creative and kept the storyline going in an interesting way. The cockroach facts explaining parts of the story were also very entertaining. When I read Metamorphosis I found it to be a very dark, somewhat depressing story. This group kept the dark feeling in their ending by having Gregor die, but their ending was more entertaining and funny as opposed to depressing. While I did not particularly enjoy reading the Metamorphosis, I did like this group’s presentation and it improves my opinion of the story. It took the absurdity of the idea that a person could just wake up and suddenly be a cockroach and almost poked fun at it, but in a respectful way. I especially like how the group’s ending brought the story full circle by having the person who used Gregor as medicine discover he had transformed into a cockroach overnight just like Gregor. Overall I think this group did a good job in making a creative connection to the literary work and presenting it in a creative way.

I really liked group eleven’s presentation/take on Kafka’s Metamorphosis. It was really cool how they tried to keep the whole theme of the presentation Kafkaesque.  I thought it was brilliant how they went over facts on cockroaches and then related to them to quotes from Metamorphosis. One of my favorite parts from the project that I thought was pretty funny was the fact that cockroaches spend seventy five percent of their time napping and this fit perfectly with the story of Gregor spending all his time as a cockroach in his room. The overall tone of the project was truly Kafkaesque because all the facts that they related to Metamorphosis were disturbing and very straight to the point which was again why I thought this project was a cool take on Kafka. Group twelve’s presentation of Fredrick Douglas was a cool way to go over their topic. I liked that they acted out a News report about the escaping of the slave, Fredrick Douglas. It was cool how they did account descriptions from the characters in the book, which really showed to me how each character related to the book by their opinions. Group Thirteen’s project on the Kreutzer sonata was another great project too. Some of the modern ads they displayed while the music was playing were eye-opening and really displayed the themes of love and marriage that they were trying to capture. One of the ads stated “Marriage, No thanks. I can’t mate in captivity.” I thought this grasped overall the main theme about the downward spiral of marriage and the ups and downs that could be felt from the music. I also liked how each as was a slow development of images according to the build of the song.

I enjoyed the presentations in class on Tuesday.  Group 11’s presentation on The Metamorphosis was creative and I enjoyed listening to the events Gregor faced throughout Mexico.  It seemed to flow smoothly with Kafka’s style, displaying the hopelessness of Gregor’s situation.  Not only does he get his head cut off and lives for a while, but then he dies slowly, being boiled in a tub of water.  Then the person who eats him turns into a bug.  Gregor is in a lifelong rut that continues to worsen.  Group 15’s presentation on the modern day interpretation of the Kreutzer Sonata was very creative and well done.  It was enjoyable to watch.  The group displayed creativity by portraying the message in Kreutzer Sonata but speaking.  Tolstoy’s work is mostly dialogue, so it was interesting to see it acted out with only quotes popping up.  Group 13’s presentation showing quotes and pictures of different images representing the way marriages can turn out was intense.  The statistics that described how many people are abused and even killed in marriage were shocking.  I thought the presentation was effectively formatted to create a serious mood in the audience. 

My favorte presentations had to be group 11 and group 15. Group 11: I loved your own Gregor/cockroach story. I liked how you incorporated facts into the presentation to make something so weird and mind blowing, back to down to earth. You allowed us to enjoy a good science fiction story with concrete logic and reason. This presentation had to be one of my favorites because you cant argue with facts. Having the different ending was also a nice touch because in my mind the story wasn't really complete in the original story. It has so many different meanings to different people and the way I wanted to end didn't happen. The way your presentation was simple, it was still deep and fun. Group 15. Your presentation was very fun and different then all the rest. I liked how you had it to the sound track and connected it together. You incorporated lots of different elements of the readings into your presentation. You touched on themes, ideas, emotions, facts, and more. To all the groups: Everyone has done a really good job. All the different ideas and all the teamwork, you can clearly see. It has all been really fun and creative. Shedding different lights on the readings then your own, or the teachers, or what the professional critics think has been really helpful to the overall understanding of the readings and to life in general. You have help expand the minds of all the students and did it in a fun way.

My favorite group was group 11. They decided to concentrate on the metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. I thought it was brave to take on this short story because as we discussed in class this didn't have a certain way to interpret  it. They decided to do "A life as a cockroach." After our discussion in class one of the professors asked how would your life be if you woke up as a cockroach and it specifically frightened myself. However, this group decided to embrace it and I thought they showed they put a decent amount of time into it and were willing to really put themselves in a cockroach's shoes.

Group 11's presentation was the most meaningful to me because of their extravagant use of imagination and creativity. Their presentation was inspired by the The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. This group applied an intriguing twist to the end of the story that eventually lead back to the beginning paragraph of the original story. Group 11 incorporated interesting facts about cockroaches such as that they sleep about 75% of their life, so they assumed Gregor was indeed taking a nap and did not die as in the original story. Instead, he lived on to undergo an extended adventure. I really enjoyed how the group tied in interesting and weird facts and incorporated them to explain their storyline. I was amazed how they used the fact that cockroaches can be used for medicinal purposes to explain how in their story, the person drank the cockroach and as a result, woke up suddenly in the body of the cockroach as evident through them reading the very first paragraph. I applaud how they took where Kafka ended his story and gave a viable reason on how the story actually continued and then summed it up by returning to the beginning as if this was a cyclic story. I thought it was absolutely brilliant and allowed me to use my imagination to fill in that gap that Kafka left the audience off at in order to produce a cycle. Also, I learned some astounding and some disgusting facts about cockroaches that reinforces my lack of taste for them. Group 11 held the audiences attention with constant humor and an organized power point that created a clear road map on where they were taking the story. Again, absolutely brilliant group 11!

I thought that group 11 had the best presentation because it was very funny and well thought out. They made it very comical by doing a play on Metamorphosis, as if Gregor had lived as a cockroach. Everyone was laughing and was intrigued throughout the entire presentation, which was different because some of the presentations have been very serious and deep in meaning. This was refreshing and kept the audience awake and alive. Each slide compared a real fact about cockroaches to Gregor such as their life span, or what they eat, and it was very funny to see how many comparisons they could make. Overall their presentation was innovative and hilarious, and everyone really enjoyed it.

I enjoyed group 11's presentation on The Metamorphosis the most.  During their presentation, they composed an extended ending to the short story where Gregor wakes up in the dumpster, gets the rotten apple in his back removed, goes to the tropics to get away from his family, communicates with protozoa and bacteria, is nocturnal, runs away from stuff fast, eats anything (including beer), gets tired and tries to stumble home, can't remember where home is (10 sec memory), a man catches him and cuts off his head (but Gregor is still alive), is boiled alive, is put into horchata and drunk, and finally the old man wakes up as a cockroach and restarts Kafka's story.  I liked this presentation because it had a nice mix of humor and actual information.  The humor was enhanced by the momentary breaks the facts provided.  The story was creative, and the pictures in the powerpoint usually added to the humor.  The main aim of the group seemed to be to get a laugh, with the semi-nonsensical adventure that Gregor had, but they also paid tribute to Kafka with their ending.  Turning the story into a recursive one that raises more questions than it answers (did Gregor eat a cockroach?  Did others come before Gregor?  How many? etc.) seems pretty Kafkaesque to me.

I enjoyed Group 11’s project. They did their presentation based on Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” bringing light to how Kafkaesque the cockroach actually is. They followed 1 year in the life of a cockroach. What got me was that my mother is an entomologist and as a child would bring in centipedes and Madagascar hissing cockroaches into my grade school classes, so I knew some of the random facts they were spitting out from my mother. I thought that there were parallels in Kafaka’s book when Gregor was locked in his room to the preference of the cockroach to be in the dark. Another was the short life span of Gregor as a cockroach to the short life span a real cockroach. Yet another was that Gregor woke up as a cockroach and went back to bed, this is quite typical as Group 11 pointed out that cockroaches spend most of their time asleep, 75% to be precise. I am glad that Group 11 had pointed out some of these factual parallels that Kafka noticed and incorporated into his book as well, or did he… It was a good laugh to see the life of a cockroach combined with the life of Gregor as a cockroach. It was quite Kafkaesque what Group 11 did; essentially they gave characteristics of human thought to a real cockroach, while Kafka gave a cockroach body to a real human. At least this was my impression of both Kafka’s book, “The Metamorphosis” and of Group 11’s presentation.

Group 11 did an excellent job on their presentation. Their clever twist on the ending of metamorphosis was both entertaining and well thought out. I enjoyed that they based the story of off factual evidence about cockroaches. The images that went with the story were very helpful and though the story was somewhat tragic, it kept the mood light. Also the visuals helped keep my attention throughout the story. The group did a very good job keeping their story very Kafkaesque. Though the story was comical, it still kept to the theme style that Kafka perpetuates in his writing. Splitting the factual evidence and the story presentation also helped keep the information pertinent to the current happenings in the story. The group did a very good job meshing the facts and the story together. The entire presentation had a great flow, which is quite an accomplishment because it could have been very choppy due to the breaks in the story telling. The story was very well thought out and obliviously a decent amount of research was done in order to use the facts to craft the story. The tragic ending was appropriate to the story, and it was like an extended tragedy to the original story. I enjoyed that the group kept the mood light because with Kafka it is very easy to give and gloom and doom presentation. Though Kafka style of writing tends to be darker, this group successfully managed to have a fun, entertaining presentation while also keeping it very informative.

I enjoyed all of the presentations this last Tuesday in class however I thought Group 11’s presentation on Gregor the Cockroach stood out.  I appreciated the time they clearly took to interpret what Kafka had meant through “The Metamorphosis”.   I thought it was very clever to continue and finish off the imaginative story that Kafka had started.  The group decided to walk us through a year in Gregor’s life, which proved to be most entertaining.  They also choose to include cockroach fun facts throughout the presentation that helped keep the audience engaged.  I wish they had been able to explain Kafka’s overall intent with “The Metamorphosis” a little better.  It was evident that they had done this themselves but I would have enjoyed hearing more of their thought process behind the project in class.  Their interpretation of where his story could have gone was articulated nicely but I still don’t know that I understand all of the themes Kafka was trying to bring light.  That being said, it’s a very eccentric story that requires more analysis than a 10 minute presentation can provide.

When it came down to it choosing my favorite presentation today was pretty hard. Most of them were a lot more creative and entertaining than the ones either in the quarter, but I felt as if Group 11 really kept in professional and fun which I am not sure I could say about all the presentations. May favorite part easily hard to be the part where the Mexican cut his head off, ground up his remains, ate them and then himself turned into a human cockroach. The other presentations seemed a little childish (although fun) in comparison. That and I am not sure how long most of the presentation have been, but this one had a good tempo and seemed to last the full ten minutes. It was nice to see them put that much effort into their project and it gave me a few ideas for my one in a couple weeks. The silent film by Group 15 was a close second. The only reason I choose Group 11 over them was because I felt as if I learned so much about cockroaches.

All the groups that presented this week were very unique, but the one that stuck out to me was group 11.  They creatively told the story of Gregor from where the book left off. The story they created as an extra ending was very interesting as well and I thought it was a cool way of references points from the story and kind of giving them closure. I liked the way each person participated in the presentation as well. The powerpoint gave a good visual of the story they were telling about gregor. I also found the humor that they added to their story a very good way of keeping the audience's attention. The group also included several facts about cockroaches that were new to me and I'm sure new to most of the audience as well. This combined humor with information that helps the audience gain more insight to the character in the novel. Some of the facts helped me understand parts of the book that I didn't before. All in all, the group did a great job of bringing information, humor, and insight all into their presentation in an enjoyable way.

Group 12

Group 12 is the group that I thought trumped all other groups. I say this because of their creativeness throughout the entire presentation.  They took an approach that kind of caught me off guard at first.  When the first person spoke and was talking about, “breaking news,” and television stations, I was thinking to myself that they probably started at the wrong spot in the presentation or they were in the wrong class all together.  Then, as the slow person I am, caught on and from beginning to end, thoroughly enjoyed the presentation.  They started where Douglass grew up, asking the residents questions as reporters from a Television news station.  From there, they went on an adventure with each successive interview leading them to another source and location, getting them closer to their ultimate goal, finding Douglass.  This was the reason their presentation was so great.  Most presentations just summarize a book or poem the class was assigned to read, whether it be through a cinematic approach or with a power point presentation.  Those to me aren’t that interesting and if I were to give advice to the remaining groups, I’d say to do something along the lines of group 12 here. They kept my interest with their southern accent and the mystery of where they were going in the future, because they weren’t just restating what the book said.  Besides having  all the qualities of a good presentation  stated above they also had a good recap of the Narrative by Frederick Douglass.  With that I say great job girls and stay classy San Luis Obispo haha.

The project I liked the best was Group 12’s. Their presentation was true to the feeling and facts of the book “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass.” Their spin to present it as a news story was both fun and humorous. The interviews with characters in the story showcased feelings on the subject of Fredrick Douglass’s escape that I felt would have been accurate compared to if you had really asked them their thoughts. The interview with Mr. Covey was especially true because he did not want to talk about the fight with Fredrick and kept asserting his dominance and control over his slaves. I liked group 13’s presentation that incorporated the ad’s with quotes from Kreutzer Sonata. The ads were a powerful way to show the treatment of women at that time and mirrored the thoughts of Pozdnishef in the novel.  The way they were thought of and treated was not as equals and it is scary to think that in those times you could just kill your wife because you suspected she was cheating on you and get away with it. Group 12 did a good job choosing the ads to show that. They also ended with some powerful facts about domestic violence and abuse that were pretty moving.

I thoroughly enjoyed group 12’s presentation. What I really enjoyed about their presentation was that it was extremely unique compared to all of the other presentations that have been shown so far. Thus far most of the presentations have been videos/slideshows, PowerPoint’s relating modern society to the time period of our readings, or interpretations of the reading. As great as the presentations have been, seeing the same types of presentations being done in class have made it difficult to respond to without seeming repetitive. The idea of presenting Fredrick Douglass’ The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass as a news broadcast was highly entertaining and kept my attention the entire time because it was something new and fresh. I really enjoyed how they used the PowerPoint in addition to their skit. Having one of the girls act as some of the characters in the book, as well as perform with accents, was really engaging. What I really enjoyed was that they didn’t go back and forth interpreting how the book is relevant to modern time.  They simply focused on the time period of the narrative, but used modern broadcasting to display the story. The only thing that concerned me during the skit was that the newscasters interviewed Sandy Jenkins, a slave acquaintance of Douglass. What concerned me about this interview was that he openly admitted to Douglass teaching him and other slaves how to read and write. I felt that Sandy being a slave and all, probably wouldn’t have admitted to learning how to read and write on TV/radio, for fear that he would get punished. Other than that minor concern, the entire presentation was great and I definitely hope to see more unique presentations in the future such as this. 

Group 12 did the best job of alluding to the reading while at the same time keeping the audience entertained. Their fake news report on the escape of Fredrick Douglas touched on almost every main point from the narrative. The interview with Sopia Auld was my favorite part of the news story. She acted like she cared about Fredrick Douglas, but then made a big deal about the amount of slaves that had been escaping. This was a really good connection to the reading because at first Sopia Auld did like Douglas but as the story went on she realized how she was supposed to be treating him as a slave. I also liked how group 12 had a fake police sketch of Fredrick Douglass, which was actually the picture from the cover of the narrative with some effects put into it. Overall Group 12 did an excellent job of making the crowd laugh with their creative spin, turning an old escape story into a modern news report. 

The best of the groups that presented yesterday were groups 12 and 15. Group 12’s news-anchor rendition of parts of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was both enjoyable and informative. They allowed the audience to have an insightful look into what very possibly could have been an aftermath of Frederick Douglass escaping (outside of the newscast). They interviewed three characters, all of whom had different roles in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and they were able to give seemingly accurate portrayals of what those people might have said. This allowed for a deeper understanding of the social impact of Frederick Douglass’ escape. Group 12’s presentation ties with group 15 in my mind for the top spot. Group 15’s silent movie portrayal of The Kreutzer Sonata was also enjoyable and showed a more modern take on the story, while still maintaining the story as a whole. The acting and dialogue made for a funny rendition of the book, but they still managed to keep the story going in a similar way to Tolstoy in The Kreutzer Sonata, even though I’m sure Tolstoy (and most of us) found very little humor in the book. It was a lighter, happier film that captured the plot-points of the book, and had that black comedy feel. Both of these presentations were effective in informing the class while still maintaining a grasp on their attention. Not that the other projects were bad, but these two stood above the rest for their insight, ingenuity, and comedy.

I thought that group 12's presentation (the news report) was the most entertaining. I really liked the way they told about the story, but gave us more information than the book itself. The group used both facts and their own interpretation to get their subject across. I also think that the group member who played the different characters made it more interesting by altering her voice and reading a speech to sound like the people she was portraying. I also like how they tied in a current media source, a TV news broadcast, to make the story more approachable and familiar for our generation. They asked good questions, in a true journalism form, and the answers they provided seem viable, even if the group made them up. This presentation put the story more to life, with the images of the East coast during the slave times and with the voices and grammar used.

Out of all the group presentations this Tuesday, the one that was the most well-done, meaningful and appropriate to me was done by Group 12. Group 12 staged a created bulletin news report as there might have been following the escape of Frederick Bailey in the Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass. Two anchors questioned a witness or friend of the escape slave, and the person questioned rotated in and out of costume/character in playing different roles. The questions asked, content and coherence of the group really made it stand out to me - and it was pretty funny at the same time, which always helps to sweeten the deal. They utilized no technology (powerpoint, music, etc) and relied only on their acting skills and a script to play out the presentation. This other side of the societal reaction to such an occurrence was a very interesting addition to the actual plot of the book in first person narrative. It was very well done and memorable!

Group 12 did a great job with their presentation. Having put the presentation as a skit/play it made it very interesting.  The skit on Fedrick Douglas and his escape from slavery using a TV news station as the way to transmit the topic was great. The three girls all spoke well and seemed like they were really trying to act. The two news casters actually sounded like real news people and the girl that was interviewed changed her voice to sound like a southern woman. The information they gave wasn’t over the top either, they didn’t try to stretch anything. It was rather factual which I liked. This group was mainly the most meaningful because they did something that stood out. I am not a very creative person and never would have thought of this, it was simple a cathchy.

While I must give props to group 15 for their video, group 12's project was most meaningful to me. Their interpretation of the biases and stereotypes of early American society were portrayed in a facetious manner, but they conveyed an important issue that we still have to pay attention to today. Their depiction of Sophia Auld and Master Cubby served to remind us that education is one of the most empowering tools one can have to advance through both society and life, especially in our technologically based age. "Ms. Auld" hit the issue right on the head when she said that education leads to participation in politics, debates, and eventually leads to freedom and the end of slavery. It makes me wonder how different continents and countries (Africa, areas of South and Central America) would have turned out if they had been given the gift of basic education, instead of the lash and cane when colonizers took over. Maybe they would have been better able to argue against the idea of one human owning another human and treating them like dirt, instead of being reduced to just being someone's belonging, like "Mr. Cubby" classified his slaves.

My favorite group thus far has been group twelve. Out of all the presentations in the class I felt that this presentation was the most true to the literature we have read. It was also by far the most entertaining presentation. The group came up with a mock modern day news cast on the events of the escape of Fredrick Douglas. This entertaining news cast highlighted the very moist important aspects of the book very well.  To display one of those points they created an interview with Sophia Auld. It was interesting how they played her character as a concerned person for Fredrick Douglas. However, she contradicted her caring nature towards Fredrick when she began complaining about how many slaves had been escaping and just how awful it was. I thought that that’s was the best point that group twelve emphasized because when the story of Fredrick starts out Sophia actually does like him but she knows that she has to treat him like a slave showing her mixed feelings and how she contradicts herself. I think that group really made that connection well within their presentation.  The really created part of the news act was that they actually had a criminal sketch of Fredrick which was the picture from the front of the book and some photo shop effects to help portray it as more of a criminal sketch. It was a cute way to make this not so modern novel come to life in today’s type of news. All in all group twelve did an great job at putting more of modern day news cast on a timeless story of Fredrick Douglas escape from slavery. This was really a great project and I hope that there are more just like this to come. Great job group twelve.

I think all the groups from Tuesday class did amazing presentations. The one presentation that was most influential to me was group 12's presentation on Fredrick Douglass. I enjoyed the way this group made Douglass's story in to a real life news report. I liked the concept of the slave escape and how they gave facts and how they did interviews with the owner and other characters. This group kept me interested and I like how they put a humorous spin on their presentation but still kept with the facts of the story. Great job!

The group whose presentation I enjoyed the most was Group 12. The acted as though they were news reporters from the time when Frederick Douglas was a slave. They were reporting his escape and held interviews with a couple of people. First they interviewed Sophia Auld, one of Douglas's masters. She spoke about the situation much like how most white people would have viewed his escape. She explained how slaves need to be kept somewhat in the dark when it comes to society in regards to things such as reading. The second interview was from Mr. Covey, who had attempted to tame Douglas. He too speaks in a degrading manor towards slaves. He explains how if Douglas were still under his watchful eye, he would be severely beaten when he was found. Covey's interview ends when the news reporters confront him about a rumor that Douglas assaulted him. The last person they interview is one of Douglas's fellow slaves who was supposed to escape with him. The slave expresses how he admires Douglas in his endeavor, but his interview is cut short due to his positive view of Douglas's escape. The group did an excellent job in acting out their different parts. I really enjoyed this inventive presentation.

Group 13

Although all the presentations on Tuesday demonstrated thoughtful and original insight, I would have to say that Group 13's project held the most significance to me.  It is my belief that whenever a group is able to connect literature with modern-day issues, the presentation will be more meaningful to a young audience.  This is exactly what Group 13 did.  They took direct quotes from Leo Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata and compared them to degrading and/or provocative advertisements from the 20th century and today. Throughout the slideshow, Beethoven's original music was playing, creating a dramatic and interesting effect.  This relationship between the text and advertisements, a medium that we are bombarded by every day, opened my eyes to a different perspective.  It is easy to overlook sexism in a book and disregard it as "old-fashioned," but the modern advertisements made it clear that this mentality is still extremely prevalent in society.  If I could offer one suggestion, though, I would have done the oral explanation at the beginning rather than the end.  The slideshow was very powerful, and the talking at the end took away from the gravity a little bit.  Other than that, the presentation was great and kept my interest throughout.  I think the members demonstrated clear understanding of the story and how it is still relevant in the 21st century.

Out of all the presentations that we saw on May 10, 2011 my favorite was probably Group 13’s presentation. I really liked the concept that they had for comparing the ads with the Kreutzer Sonata’s themes. They created a good mood with the song playing in the background and I felt that it helped the whole thing. It showed that even though the Kreutzer Sonata was written in 1889 it has still remained very relevant even now in modern times. I also liked the use of the song because I felt as if some of the more intense ads were during the rising sections of the song and it flowed very well. There were sometimes when the quotes were too long but for the most part they were simple and associated with the following picture and it just created an atmosphere that was both chilling and informative. Seeing some ads in this context made me see a little deeper then I would have thought with this.  I also enjoyed that it was very simple yet at the same time it was almost profound with its message it made it easier to swallow without really holding anything back at the same time. I was actually surprised at some of the more current ads and what they were portraying were actually approved for today’s audience. Overall they did a great job and I applaud them for it. 

I felt that Group 13 presented the Kreutzer Sonata very well. Their power-point was well done and was very interesting. I liked the PowerPoint because it was full of some funny but at the same time very meaningful and powerful pictures and advertisements. I liked how they compared that to the quotes in Kreutzer Sonata on love and marriage. The quotes they showed combined with the ads and images in the PowerPoint tied in very well together and shows how humans views on sex and jealously hasn't really changed that much over time.   Another interesting thing the group did was play actual Kreutzer Sonata by Beethoven during their presentation and it tied the whole project together, as the song has and makes you feel the same tension that the PowerPoint and the quotes are trying to convey. The audio and visuals the group showed helped to strengthen their presentation and helped to clarify the struggle in the Kreutzer Sonata.

The best presentation was presented in the middle by group 13.  Their presentation was based off of the reading The Kreutzer Sonata.  Their presentation started off with the musical sonata composed by Beethoven.  This added a really great touch to the presentation because it set the tone early on.  Then it progressed into a slide show that alternated between slides that displayed quotes from the reading and slides that displayed propaganda.  All of the slides showed how women were negatively viewed and still are to this day.  I really enjoyed this presentation because no one in the group said anything and this also helped to set the tone of seriousness.  The slides were ordered very nicely and also the propaganda that was displayed was perfectly put into the presentation.  I think it is really important to bring the inequality between men and women to people’s attention.  A lot of times in today’s society people see women as a sign of sex, but when it was paired with these awful quotes from the book it really brought these assumptions into a negative light.  I think that this group took this project the most seriously and what they came up with was fabulous.  They clearly put a lot of time and effort into this presentation and presented on a subject that all of them were passionate about.  It was also very relatable to the audience because at least half are females and even for the men, most people have either said or heard someone put down a woman.

The group that really spoke to me the most out of all the groups we watched today was group 13. I liked how they found ads from present day and from the past that embodied some of the ideas and emotions from the Kreutzer Sonata. Some of the images were funny and made me laugh but as the quotes got more intense, as well as the music, the images were more and more eye-opening and touched at my emotions. As a Marketing major, seeing the degrading images of women makes me want to do everything in my power to change the industry. I liked how they incorporated the statistics at the end as well. Those were extremely informational, things that I had no idea were going on in the United States.

Choosing a favorite and most memorable presentation was a difficult decision this week.  None particularly jumped out at me as being exceptional.  I felt that one group in particular had potential, however, and they were very close to being successful.  That was group 13.  Their collection of advertisements throughout history was a very clever way to relate to their theme within The Kreutzer Sonata.  They took the notion of how women are portrayed in media and compared that to the way Pozdnischeff personally feels towards society's view of women.  Pozdnischeff feels that women use their physical characteristics to their advantage to persuade and deceive men.  He makes an example about how men are mostly captivated by a woman's looks at a first introduction.  I agree with the group that media (in the past, as well as the present), do the same thing to sell products.  As seen in the presentation, older media may be more hostile and derogatory towards women explicitly, while today, it is a bit more implicit (but not by much).  Today, the media relies on a woman's sex appeal to sell, instead of outright mocking women.  I feel the group did a good job showing the transformation of women in the media, but I feel their analysis was lacking.  If they were to spend more time connecting the slideshow to the story, or its meaning, the presentation would have been much better.

Although group 15, the last group, had the presentation that was able to grab my attention the easiest, I felt that the presentation with the most meaning, and that brought new information and analysis to the table was group 13. Their presentation format consisted of a series of quotes from the Kreutzer sonata with images following each quote kind of analyzing the quote or trying to explain it from their point of view. I thought this was extremely effective, excluding a few images which I found out of place, and a good way to show their analysis without just simply talking to us. As the saying goes a picture says a thousand words, and I thought group 13 achieved this with their presentation. What really grabbed my attention though, and made me write about the presentation with the stats they presented near the tail end of the slideshow. They set up a light-hearted viewpoint towards the mistreatment of females and the role that it played in the novel. Then all of a sudden they hit the audience with a series of statistics regarding the subject that were very extreme. The light-hearted tone they set really made these statistics about the treatment of females in our society stand out and really hit home. They were effective in getting their point across to the audience that this was a problem in the past and is still prevalent today.

On Tuesday, Group 13’s presentation made a powerful impact. This group took quotes from theKruezter Sonata and paired them with shocking advertisements negatively depicting marriage, relationships, and women. This presentation affected me because I took a Women’s and Gender Studies class last quarter, and this was a main issue we discussed vehemently in class. However, when I was reading the Kruezter Sonata, the theme of violence toward women did not even occur to me. I just accepted that this man violently murdered his wife. I was disappointed with myself that I did not recognize this discrimination until their presentation. But I think my ignorance is a reflection on our society and culture. The ads that they showed are everywhere, and stories of domestic violence always appear in magazines and on television. So when I read a story about the ill treatment of women, I did not even think to question it because it seemed like nothing new. How crazy is that? This presentation was a reminder of what I learned last quarter. It is important to question our society and advocate for all people to be treated with respect. Women’s rights and human rights are not just something that you can learn from a text book. These issues surround us and are alive and thriving. And they will not go away until we stand up to them. Advertisers put these horrible images in magazines because we allow them. We might not like them, but as a society we do not object. Group 13 reminded me to question the society that I live in.   

I found group 13 to be the best. The group clearly put in a lot of time and effort in creating their power point due to their use of advertisements and quotations. I liked the use of old and modern day ads which showed that not much has changed, in fact, the modern ads (dolce and gabbana, and calvin klein) were more graphic where as the words in the older ads were more obscene. I loved the use of the music during the slideshow, and the quotes from the story put the story into context. The slides went a little too fast so it was hard for me to really think about what they were saying , but over all I really liked the presentation. The ending was strong 3 women, and 1 man in the USA are murdered by their intimate partners EVERYDAY

The group that had the most meaningful presentation in my opinion was Group 13.  I felt that their dramatic, present-day interpretation of the Kreutzer Sonata was not only applicable to today’s society, but it was also addressing a serious problem with our society.  Women are seen as sex symbols in many advertisements and in today’s pop culture which sends a message to men that women are inferior.  Men may feel that they are dominant compared to women because of these messages sent through the ads and the media.  This definitely plays into the unfortunate reality that 3 women are murdered everyday by their partner.  Something needs to be done about this problem or domestic abuse will continue into the future.

My favorite presentation of the day was group 13. Their presentation was based on Leo Tolstoi's work, "The Kreutzer Sonata."  Their powerpoint was displaying popular advertisements from the 20th century to today.  I saw their presentation as really interesting because it focused on the gender roles that are so apparent in our society.  The ads really depicted women as property to their husbands.  The ads also focused on how much of a hinderance marriage was and how the husbands all held the general belief that their wives would be the "death" of them.  It was shocking to see the comparisons between advertisements in the 20th century to today.  The popular ads today have really strong sexual tones.  It is sad to see the women in ads today are still being seen as merely sex symbols, or the mans "play thing."  I like that this group took the time to include the quotes from Tolstoi's work so that we could both observe and process the information.  The quotes they included were some of the strongest in the selection.  At one point they included the quote from Pozdnyshev when he finally described his feelings after he killed his wife.  He was in such a jealous rage that he never really thought about what he was doing, his reflection afterwords is quite interesting.  Overall I thought the group did a great job, their presentation was relevant and also informative.  

Group #13’s presentation on the Kreutzer Sonata was the most meaningful to me as it delves into the topic of love and the union between two people. The group compared Tolstoy’s work to ads and images of the 20^th and 21^st century that display the role of women as subversive and weak. These ads I found would be very provocative in today’s culture as some of them were extremely sexists, treating women as mere objects. This treatment of women is discussed at the beginning of the Kreutzer Sonata when the women and the merchant were discussing the idea of marriage and whether or not love is necessary. In the story the old man quotes, “Don’t trust your horse in the field nor your wife in your home.” There is this belief that a woman is just another object or creature under man’s control, and that marriage is not a contract of love but a contract of ownership over a woman.These ads displayed by group 13 show that this belief persists even today. Women today may not so much be perceived as objects but as symbols of sex. In the Kreutzer Sonata Pozdnischeff describes sexual love as repulsive and destructive and that marriage represents jealousy and misunderstanding, which is all quite evident in Pozdnischeff’s marriage. To some extent today’s culture can be described as another Kreutzer Sonata as today women are heavily valued by their beauty and physique and not other important characteristics. These values twist our ideas of love and can lead to faulty marriages that cannot possibly last, as there is nothing that can maintain these cordial feelings. This may explain the high rate of divorce in our country.

I found that Group 13 did the best job of clearly and enthusiastically presenting the material in their project, as well as keeping the audience interested in what they were talking about.  They did a great job of showing their powerpoint with many visuals that described the many quotes they presented to the class.  These quotes described the way men and women treated each other and thought about one another.  They made it very entertaining by showing funny pictures that fit perfectly in explaining what the quotes meant.  The quotes and pictures helped explain the relationship men and women have towards each other by showing the men think they are so much higher than the women and need to get away and always be with more women.  The group also showed how women will do anything for the men and will always want to be with them.  In the presentation, the women were portrayed as one who will do any favor for their husband while the husband just wants to get away and stomp all over their wives.  This presentation kept my attention the whole time and was entertaining as well as intellectual at the same time.

In my opinion I thought group 13 did an excellent job of discussing The Kreutzer Sonata. I thought their approach of discussing different interesting and important quotes then comparing them to advertisements throughout the years was very unusual and creative. I thought it was very interesting how the different advertisements had such different views and target audiences, it was original to compare it to quotes from the book that characters who also have very different views. I like how they pointed out the different opinions of love and marriage shared by the different people on the train, and was able to find a correlating advertisement that shared a similar view after each quote. It is something I would have never thought to do. The views were all very different and it was interesting to have them brought up again and further explained. I thought the quotes were very fitting to each individual’s view and portrayed their beliefs well. The advertisements shown helped to keep the power point visually stimulating and entertaining, it was my favorite part of the presentation. I also like how the group gave a brief history of Tolstoy and his beliefs of love and marriage. I thought it was interesting that becoming a radical Christian made his marriage fall apart. This made the character of Pozdnyshev much more intriguing and understandable, since he portrayed exactly what Tolstoy feared sex would do to a marriage and helped better explain not only the character of Pozdnyshev, but also Tolstoy’s personal beliefs and fears. The group brought up some interesting and very unique characteristics of Tolstoy that I was unaware of. 

found the presentation by group 13 to be very interesting, insightful, and important. They did their presentation on Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata and its similarities to past and present day America. They played for the class Beethoven’s musical piece The Kreutzer Sonata, and simultaneously played a slideshow of American advertising clips ranging from 60 years ago to now. I found this presentation very powerful. Tolstoy’s work talks about woman and their “place” in a relationship and often paints women in a 2^nd class negative light. Seeing the slide show presented while considering the text, it was very enlightening to see the horrors of what the text was actually saying. To often in society the view of women being substandard citizens is ignored and thought of as a thing of the past. As group 13 showed us, this discrimination existed in the past and unfortunately still exists today. It is sickening to think that this mentality has continued into the world of today and that women are still ill treated by their husbands and those in our surrounding society. I am glad that this aspect of Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata was addressed to the class and I hope that the presentation made by group 13 has a lasting effect o all the students in our class. I think group 13’s presentation was and will be the most memorable of all the presentations made in class this year. Group 13 presented on The Kreutzer Sonata. Their presentation used power point to display lines from the book and images of advertisements they collected. This group selected the majority of their quotes from opening of the book, when the train passengers are discussing love, marriage, the right of a woman. While reading this section of the book I felt that some of these ideas seemed exaggerated. Group 13 accompanied these lines with advertisements from what appeared to be early 1940s through current day. I was surprised how well this group brought these advertisements to relate to the individual quotes, to say, that they did not seem selected and compared at random. Certain advertisements showed that what I felt was exaggerations were very accurate to certain generations. During their presentation, which was nicely done within the allotted ten minutes, the Kreutzer Sonata by Beethoven was playing. It appeared they timed the more serious quotes and darker advertisements with the slower gloomier parts of the sonata. The end of their slideshow saw the slowest part of the song, and this music was accompanied by statistics of domestic abuse in the world today. I admire the serious note this group left their presentation on. Instead of just reliving part of the reading, they brought the issue discussed into focus, by using the domestic abuse statistics. Overall this presentation kept my attention and evoked some thought on my part about one of the readings motifs.

This round of group projects was awesome because it was based on different works than the previous projects. Out of all the presentations, however, I feel that Group 13's presentation was the most meaningful to me. Group 13's presentation using the Keutzer Sonata as the inspiration for a slide show about the traditional and extremest traditional views of women's roles in society and in the home. I liked how they subtly included bits and pieces of Leo Tolstoy's work into it by emphasizing some peoples' beliefs of women being completely faithful to their husband by staying home and avoiding spending time with other men. Their presentation stirred anger, sadness, surprise, and disappointment when viewing some of the images they included. I was captivated by what quotes and images were to come in the slide show, and keeping my attention means a lot. It was obvious that time was well spent on this presentation, and the work showed. They did a fantastic jobTuesday’s presentations were all very good. I enjoyed watching all of them. They were all thought provoking and entertaining to watch. All of the groups did an excellent job with their projects, it was hard to choose a favorite. I thought that Group 13 had a presentation that hit me emotionally and that is why it was my favorite. They had a slide show with The Kreutzer Sonata playing in the background. I really enjoyed reading the slides with all of the statistics on them. I just wish they had kept the slides up a tad bit longer so that I could actually finish reading them all. But when somebody starts talking about abuse—especially spousal abuse-- most people get really quiet and really pay attention to what is being said. I liked the different ads that they used in their slide show as well. I did not know that some of those existed. It is crazy when you actually take a step back and see how many ads and magazines are all promoting sex in some way. I think it is sad really. After the slide show was over the group members did not really talk much, but I don’t think they had too. There point was made with the slide show nothing needed to be said after it. I think why I really liked Group 13’s presentation so much was because they used real quotes, and real statistics and real ads and real stories. It made me think how fortunate I am to not have been brought up in family with that problem. All of the groups yesterday did an excellent job I just went with the presentation that really made me think and feel something. So great job to all of you!

I believe that group 13 did extraordinarily well, they really gave me a new look a different look on The Kreutzer Sonata. Rather than give a presentation and just explain the text. They decided to go at it in a different approach.  They had a slide show of the text and some images that would relate to the text, some a bit humorous others serious. As the slide show played they and music play, I’m sorry i do not remember that specific music that was playing. But it indeed went well with the project. I really enjoyed the end of the project. The last few slide I believe were a great addition to the power point presentation. They stated the statistics of domestic violence: death rate, sexual assaults etc.  Instead of just ending it with the slide show, they decided to sum it all up for the audience, which was nice closure to the project. All in all i believed the group worked well together and gave a great interpretation of this piece.

The group project that was the most meaningful to me was Group #13.  I feel that this group did a great job representing the theme of sexual discrimination in The Kreutzer Sonata.  The rights of women have been an ongoing issue since the beginning of time, and the social stigma that women are inferior is all too common.  I like the way that the group presented specific quotes from the text and then displayed a particular ad or poster which depicted the modern meaning behind the words, while also playing Beethoven’s music.  Especially significant to me were the quotes that stated how women should practically be a slave to their husbands and need to be physically handled in order to ensure their faithfulness to only one man.  Along with these quotes were advertisements from current companies, such as Dolce and Gabbana.  These advertisements showed women being brutally handled by men, depicting their masculinity and control over a defenseless female.  In another class I was in, a group from Cal Poly presented us with a video which also showed how women are continually degraded in our society through advertisements, songs, music videos and other forms of media.  In these forms, women are seen to only be used for sexual enjoyment and hold no power against men.  I believe that women should no longer continue to be portrayed as the weaker sex that can be easily manipulated by men.  The Kreutzer Sonata shows how this exact thinking was present in the late 1800’s, and although some progress has been made in women’s rights, there is still much to be changed in the present day.

Of these week’s group presentations, I really enjoyed group 13’s presentation. Though it is sad that those ads were once real, they were very well incorporated into the presentations for accompanying quotes. The ads help to enlighten and reinforce the meanings of the quotes and of the story as a whole. The ads were jarring and good at catching the audience’s attention. I feel that the connection in the Kreutzer Sonata to the problem of domestic violence today was a very good point to make. It is a huge problem today that needs to be addressed and it’s sad how in the story, he got off after killing hi wife. The slide set to the sonata was insightful too, as was the bio on Tolstoi and how that may have inspired him or affected his writing of this story. Good job!

I thought group thirteen’s project had a powerful impact on the class.  They were the group who chose many quotes from the Kreutzer Sonata and matched them to advertisements from the 20^th and 21^st centuries.  The quotes and images revolved around negative representations of women.  The presentation was set to the Kreutzer Sonata music, which greatly added to the drama of the slides.  The group ended with facts about violence against women, which coincided with the ending of the song.  When the presentation was over the room was silent—the information was obviously powerful.  My only criticism about the project was that some of the quotes were too long and I could not read them fast enough.  I realize that this was due to the timing of the song.  This did not detract from the project though, and it still left an impression on me.  I read a lot of magazines.  Now after their project, all I see when I flip through a magazine are degrading images of women.  It seems odd that it is this way since fashion magazines are created by and for women.  One would think it would be the opposite, that magazines would do all they could to empower women.  Instead most preach about women’s issues in articles and then show women in compromising positions on the next page.  It is very contradictory.  Throughout history women have gained more and more power in society and I hope it does not end here, with subliminal derogatory messages from the media.    

I really enjoyed the presentation examining the Kruetzer Sonata.  I really enjoyed how they began with comedy and satirizing marriage and the pitfalls of marriage where the entire class was laughing and then quickly began showing the seriousness of domestic violence.  It was a shocking and eye opening presentation that was visually stimulating and showed the parallels of the book to events affecting society today.  I thought the presentation was really powerful and having the actual Bethoven composition behind the presentation was a great touch.

There were two presentations from yesterday that I thoroughly enjoyed. The first was the group involving the advertisements and the Kreutzer Sonata. I liked this one because it showed a connection between a novel written over a century ago and advertisement and our culture today. The second presentation I enjoyed was the silent, black and white movie. This is by far the most creative presentation that I have seen yet. It was great that they incoorporated the story line from the Kreutzer Sonata but put a modern setting to it. I throughly enjoyed watching this presentation.

The project that I was able to connect with the most during today's presentations was that of group13 with their coparisons involving the Kreutzer Sonata. In my previous quarter I was enrolled in Psychology of Women and we studied many advertisements that were similar to those presented in the group's presentation and was able to understand the connections they were making between things that Pozdnicheff, and other characters, had said compared to advertisements in our society. Many of the statements that were presented from the Kreutzer Sonata were in regards to degrading women or things of that nature, and the advertisements went very well with each quote providing examples of modern day sexism which were blatantly obvious.  Pozdnicheff himself was easily considered sexist as he believed his wife was completely at fault for him murdering her, and believed that women were to serve their husband's wants, as many of the ads depict as well.

Group 14

My favorite group was Group 14. I enjoyed how they put a modern twist on Colonel Chabert, including the ever popular Facebook, which I feel almost everyone can relate to. The rewrite story started out with Chris Chabert, the man who shot Osama Bin Laden, coming back from the war and goes on his Facebook to find his girlfriend has changed it. He tries to sue his girlfriend but since no one had survived and he had severe PTSD, no one believed he was who he was. Chris finds out that his ex-girlfriend Grace is now dating Kevin Federline, who begs Chris not to sue. Chris kindly obliges and resorts to Xanga instead of Facebook. He is searched later to be a completely different person. I feel this largely related to the book as it basically follows the same plot line except for the fact that it is modern. I feel the group portrayed extremely well how the story could be in this time, with Facebook, Obama, and the war. My experience with the presentation was mainly a comical one, I felt it appealed to me with the humor as well as the modern twist. For the most part, I found myself to be laughing and I enjoyed their presentation the most with both the story and the images that supplemented the storyline well.

This third day of presentations was a very good one. Many groups were extremely creative and, clever, and original. From a current Colonel Chaubert who can’t log into his Facebook, to a cockroaches story, and even the news program responding to the escape of Frederick Douglass were all great presentations. There was one, however, that stood out in my mind. Group 13 and their research to compare anti-women propaganda used in the States to the Kreutzer Sonata was not only clever, but it was humorous, and even enlightening. I had no idea that propaganda had been as degrading as the ads that were shown throughout this presentation. They had a huge impact on myself and my knowledge of our history. The strong appeals to treating women in the very blunt, negative, and humiliating way left a large impact on myself. Then when trying to compare these to the Kreutzer Sonata, you find that they are very fitting. In the story,Pozdnyshev in a way controls his wife throughout the story in many different ways. His view of her is not a view of a human being, but rather as of a piece of his property. He is enraged and filled with jealousy when she doesn’t act like how he expects her to and it ultimately leads to her murder. This is an extreme outcome for any story and it is easily comparable to the severity and intensity of the ads shown in this presentation.

My favorite presentation was the group that did theirs on “Colonel Chabert.” They recreated the story by Honore de Balzac, but with one critical and comical twist, instead of losing his actual identity, it was his facebook identity that he was trying to regain. The group took several key passages from the book and rewrote them, but factored in their twist, and the result was a very comical, but also extremely revealing presentation. I do not know if this group was intending to reveal a dark truth about how the line between our digital and physical worlds is fading (if not already completely gone). Whether it was intentional or not, the presentation had a profound effect in the way of social commentary (at least for me) in that I realized that for some people, losing their facebook identity might be a problem of a magnitude comparable to that which Colonel Chabert faces in the book. Its not the comparison itself that was the disturbing part, but rather that such a comparison even exists. The fact that we can relate to Colonel Chabert through such a metaphor, even the metaphor is meant to be comical and only contains a hint of truth, is appalling.

From this Tuesday’s batch of group presentations, I felt that Group 14’s presentation was the most meaningful.  The presentation combined current events with contemporary pop culture to make Colonel Chabert more relatable for college students.  In Group 14’s version of Colonel Chabert, the colonel is the killer of Osama Bin Laden, but is assumed to be dead after his Facebook account is stolen.  Osama’s killing is present in the minds of many Americans right now, so it is all the more unsettling to think that the hero behind the death of America’s longtime nemesis would be treated like a nonliving being.  It’s also intriguing to think about the unlikely possibility of Osama still being alive, and how he would feel being treated as a dead man by his former followers.  While most of us would sympathize with Chabert and with the killer of Osama, most Americans would see such a fate for Osama Bin Laden as a fitting punishment possibly worse than death.  In this case, we almost take on the role of Chabert’s wife, who seemed to take pleasure in making her former husband suffer.  Of course, losing one’s Facebook identity comes nowhere close to losing your real-life identity.  It’s funny to think of an old colonel being so devastated over the loss of his Facebook account that he would procure the services of a lawyer in order to get it back.  I suppose Facebook could attain that level of importance in the distant future.  In any case, it was the combination of serious (Osama’s killer being treated as dead when he is still alive) and funny (the exaggerated importance of Facebook) which made Group 14’s presentation so effective.  Most groups so far have only attempted to be funny, so it’s impressive to see something more.

I thought the most relatable project was group 14 who did the project on Chabert. The group’s modern day version of Chabert was creative and humorous. It brought out the lesson’s in the Colonel Chabert to be easily transferable to the modern day times. In the book, Chabert is not recognized after his accomplishments for the country, the same way Chris Chabert is not recognized in society after serving his country. The injustice, corruption, and tragedy Paris encountered after the revolution sent an onorable man to be left empty-handed. I thought that the project did a good job to bring out emotion even though it was mostly meant to be humorous. Just like Colonel Chabert, Chris and Derville remain honorable and good men, but society has been too corrupted. No matter what they do, their environment and surroundings have changed, giving them bad news after bad news. I find that today, the theme that money and social standing play a big role in people’s lives, although not to the extent of the book. People with money and social standing tend to do a lot of dirty things to keep their money and social standing, such as paying off people to keep their mouth shut.

Group 15

The presentation that I thought was the most interesting and rewarding was the last one, which was a silent film reenactment of The Kreutzer Sonata set in more modern times.  It was really interesting to see a simplified version of the story, without all of the rants and dialogues and tangents that the characters in the book embark upon.  They took the root of the story, with its drama about love and trust, and made it accessible to the audience.  I also really like how it was a silent film, and the background music was the Kreutzer Sonata.  We were able to feel the dramatic music in response to the plot of the story, and allow that to make the story more meaningful or memorable to ourselves.  All of the members of the group clearly put a lot of effort into the project, and really portrayed the key elements of the book in the silent film.  They also did a great job with the setting in the movie, and keeping elements similar to those in the book even though they did change some stuff.  My favorite part about this presentation was that they didn't just tell the story, but they did keep some of the discussion on love and trust in the film, which is the entire basis of the book.  Overall, I though it was really well done and a really thoughtful and engaging presentation.

I really enjoyed all group presentations, but the one that really captured my attention was the presentation of group 15. They used a great sense of humor in creating a short comedy mix of the Tolstoy story and the Beethoven duet. I liked how the video was made like a classic comedy. For example, Instead of verbal conversations, the team matched different scenes with written narrative of the story which is a typical characteristic of a classicl comedy. Also, the video was in black and white which added to the sense that the video was old similar to the classic comedies. The choice of music was great, it had a the right tempo that matched the speed of the video and the feeling I got from the music was just right to set the right mood for the story. I really enjoyed the actings, and it was great to see all team members felt comfortable in front of the camera and got into their characters. It was easy to understand the reference of the story with the Kreutzer Sonata while it has its own unique differences which also did not impact the effectiveness of the story.  It was a very good and successful overal combination based on my opinion. I know that creating such a video takes a lot of time and effort, and I really appreciate the amount of time the group has spent to arrange, film, and edit the video. There is only one thing that I believe could improve the work significantly, and that's adding more analysis and personal comments about the original story.

I think that the presentation that stood out to me the most was done by group #15.  They created a modern day remake of “The Kreutzer Sonata” by Leo Tolstoy.  Their interpretation was shown through their silent film where they portrayed the feelings and emotion present throughout the book.  They made it very entertaining, and it grasped my attention.  The work shows a more negative side of love, arguing for sexual abstinence and portraying jealous hatred for ones spouse.  In the novel, the main character describes the events leading up his killing his wife.  In the groups movie they show the same kind of emotion and they acted out experiences relative to the book, which, in turn led to the main character ‘killing’ his wife once he found out she was with another man.  They did a good job relating their movie to the description in the book.  The group also chose good background music to play with the film, allowing it to invoke emotions felt by the characters. Another thing that I liked about the project was it was funny.  Making it a humorous presentation keeps the audiences attention focused, entertaining them throughout the whole piece.  They did a good job with their silent film, because they didn’t even have to say anything and the audience knew what was going on and could easily relate it to the reading.  I think the entire group did an excellent job creating a stimulating, attention grasping modern day remake of the sonata.

The group with the best presentation so far is definitely Group 15.  They had such a great idea of composing a silent video for the story of Kreutzer Sonata.  It definitely created a greater dramatic effect for the audience, and expressed the various strong emotions throughout the story. Their own reenactment of the story was very creative, entertaining and representative. They clearly showed how passionate and emotional the character was about his wife. They did a good job of demonstrating the plot on the train where Pozdnyshev overhears two men talking about divorce and love and he then joins them and starts telling the story of his wife.  It was clear that he had such strong feelings for his wife, that he would take any action to have her back. Unfortunately, his feelings were so strong and overpowering that once he found out she was having an affair with another man, he was furious with such anger that he killed her.  The romantic period expressed great emotions of love and passion.  Whenever the music was quiet and slow, it represented sadness, confusion and disappointment.  Whenever the music suddenly became loud, forceful and rapid, it represented the emotions of anger, hatred, and jealousy.  Love is clearly not all it seems to be. Many think it’s innocent and perfect, but in reality, it’s damaging and difficult to maintain.  Music can have such a great impact on someone’s mood.  It has the capability to transform one’s mood from content and peaceful, to frightened, angry and jealousy.  

The group presentation that I enjoyed the most was group 15’s rendition of the kreutzer sonata. I feel that this group did a fantastic job at making their presentation relate to the audiences younger generation. They achieved this by using a dj instead of a violinist. This also brought humor to the presentation. During the video when the girl meets the dj, the dj is fist pumping. This fist pumping reminds college kids of the hit show jersey shore which captures the attention. These concepts that they incorporated into their video made me personally want to watch the video. I was not bored at all. I was actually interested in still watching the video even though I already knew how it would end. I think that their techniques also proved successful simply by the applause that followed their presentation. By this I mean that the class didn’t just give a polite clap for their presentation. The class full out applauded and laughed after the video was presented. Another technique they used in their video that I liked was making the video have no color. This made the film see more dramatic and reminded me more have the actual kreutzer sonata would be performed. Overall I feel the group did a great job at presenting and I have nothing negative to say about their presentation.

All of the presentations were enjoyable but I think the project presented by Group 15 was the most meaningful and the most creative thus far.  They took the Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoi and did their own modern day Kreutzer Sonata.  I like how they acted out their own modern day Kreutzer Sonata and did a movie format.  I thought it was creative and helpful to develop their own modern day Kreutzer Sonata that was similar to the original novel.  Also, the choice of music in the background was a nice touch.  I also thought that the acting was a bit comical which kept me entertained.  The group worked well together and did a wonderful job in portraying the husband and wife relationship and how jealousy destroys marriage. Overall, I believe that group 15’s presentation was the best and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I enjoyed Group 15's short film the most. It depicted a better illustration of a modern day scenario of the 'casualties' of love. With the Kreutzer Sonata playing in the background, the scene is perfectly portrayed. Lust and jealousy are usual feelings of love initially. Their story also perfectly mirrored the jealously that Podnyschev possessed for his wife that gave him causality to kill her. This story has many echoes of Songs of Innocence and Experience, the idea that ignorance is bliss. In the silent film, the main male role was happy and in love with his girlfriend prior to knowing that she was actually two timing him. Through experience, commonly negatively connotated, he comes to realize the truth which in turn enrages him to kill. So then the question arises, where should one lie in the spectrum of innocence and experience? Is it better to know or not know at all?

I really liked Group 15’s video on the Kreutzer Sonata. I think that this group represented the story well, with a modern twist. It is inspiring to see a group put so much additional effort and time into the project.  They had to put this together by meeting to write the script, film the acting, and edit the entire video. I think that the silent film captured the mood of the time because it had the appearance of being an older video, but it also had the feeling of being modern. I found it funny that they switched the classical musical instruments (violin and piano) for a turntable. This helps make the story relatable, because I think that today, people experience more with DJ’s, than they do with classical musicians. Obviously people still play the violin and piano and classical music today, but Beethoven was a new musician of their time, and today, electronic music is the new thing. I think that this group had the most well-rounded and inclusive content of all the groups that went. Group 13 also did the Kreutzer Sonata, and had a meaningful presentation on women and statistics on abuse. Group 13 was a moving presentation, however I think that Group 15 did a good job on including more than just the aspect of how women were treated. Group 15 leaves everything up to your own interpretation, but represents the story very accurately. I think that all the groups did especially well today, so this was difficult to pick a favorite. I think the creativeness of this project is ultimately what won me over.

I thought Group 15 had the best presentation of the day.  They took the Kreutzer Sonata and brought it to life in an amazing silent film.  I really liked how this group used their kitchen and their creative skills to film themselves in black and white and  have different scenes made right in their house.  The story line was very comical and was fun to follow and pay attention to.  All the people had their own comical way of acting and playing their part.  They used hand motions that were very descriptive, along with facial expressions which tied in very well with the music and their story line that was modernized. The way the movie was pieced together with black and white silent filming and then black background with white letters.  This looks like a lot of time and creativeness to put together and they took a whole new spin on the style of project presented and that is why I think this group had the best presentation of the day

While I thoroughly enjoyed all groups that presented on Tuesday, the group that stood out the most to me was Group 15.  I thought they did a perfect job of creating a project that was clever and funny, but still applied to the readings we did.  The “silent film” aspect was perfect for the setting, and added to the humor of the project.  While the project didn’t add too much in terms of analysis or interpretation, the modern day translation made it a lot more accessible for me, and I’m sure other students feel the same way.  I particularly enjoyed the replacement ofPozdnyshev’s wife’s lover with a DJ.  That provided some subtle, but really funny moments in the movie.  I think one thing that would have made this project even better would have been if the group had provided some extra analysis after we watched the movie.  As I said earlier, the movie was great in its own right, but some sort of extra content would have made things even better.  Lastly, I’d like to say that the focus on Pozdnyshev and his socks at the very end of the film was hilarious.  Even though the project didn’t have that extra analysis, I think it was still a great project.  

The presentation that stood out to me was the group that had the silent film about the Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy. I enjoyed how the film comedically put the story into a modern and adolescent setting while still getting the main points of the story across. Additionally, the silent text and the black and white was a good way to make the modern version of the story fit with the original. At times it was overly comedic for the mood of the original story, but overall I think the video was successful and very entertaining.

I really enjoyed the silent movie presentation of the Kreutzer Sonata.  I really like how it brought the story into a modern light.  The movie was well done and I'm sure the group had fun filming it.  I sometimes feel that there are a lot of details that a reader can miss when reading stories, and a visual reference can be very useful to understanding the entire story. This group did a good job of summarizing the themes and plot of the Kreutzer Sontata, yet it was not dry or boring. I particularly liked the socks joke at the end.

Group 15 did a great job making the silent film. It was a humorous and insightful performance. In the Kreutzer Sonata the men are sitting in a train car having a conversation and this performance stayed true to this plot the whole time. The way the train scene cuts out every once in awhile to play the scenes with the wife portrays the anecdotes that are being told throughout the story. It was amazing that without any sound they were able to portray the full and true story of the Kreutzer Sonata. The simple quotes every so often with the silent acting worked well to make an old fashioned, silent film. The Kreutzer Sonata is a very complex and controversial story and group 15 did a great job relaying most parts of it. Their filming seemed professional and their quotes were funny and helpful throughout the video.

I really enjoyed group 15's presentation. Their video was very entertaining and it really captured the essence of the Kreutzer Sonata story. I like how they made their own rendition of the train scene and Podsnyshev's story. I really enjoyed how they made it their own by using a DJ instead of a violinist as the man who his wife has an affair with. I also think that it was very understandable and I liked how it was a silent film. It gave a chance to really hear the Kreutzer Sonata in it's essence. I felt that they used the song in contrast with Podsnyshev's story. It was really enjoyable to see how the music actually went with the story. The ups and downs of the song really attach to what Podsnyshev goes through in his story on the train and telling other people of the killing of his wife. I really enjoyed that aspect of it. It was also very comedic in a way and I really liked how they were able to bring a little comedy into this actually tragic story. I loved it! very good job guys!

The project that I found to be the most entertaining was certainly group 15's presentation. This group decided to present on the Kreuzter Sonata, with their own video describing the story. The focus was on the first part of the story where the man tells the passengers about the story of him killing his wife in a jealous rage. This group made a silent film with subtitles and the Kruetzer Sonata playing in the background, while they acted out their own version of the story. In this modern version, they had the man's wife cheating on him with a DJ. The added humor certainly made the story more relatable to the young audience. I found myself much more interested in the presetation than in the story itself (sorry!). While the story is a modern twist, it's still somewhat ancient since it was a silent film, a nice combination. Since my group is presenting next class, this will be a tough act to follow! I applaud this group for presenting a very professional, well-executed presentation.

I really enjoyed Group 15 who made their own black and white version of The Kreutzer Sonata. They had us all laughing, but retold the story accurately and in a modern way. The black and white quality and cursive text made the movie appear vintage, but their pop culture references updated the novel. I appreciated all the work that went into their project (movies can take a long time) but they captured our attention the entire time and it was really well done. The air of jealousy Tolstoi was trying to get across in the train ride came through in this presentation. I loved how they took specific scenes from the book to act out and I think the class really enjoyed it. Their project was most meaningful because they really took on the entire story.

 I liked group fifteen's silent movie the best. It was entertaining and funny. I was leary of the silent part of it but having seen it one of the better parts was it's silence. It was enjoyable to see everyone involved and enthusiastic in the movie. I also liked the modern twist with the DJ and the pairing of dance and music much like the duet between the piano and violin. The choice of background music was expected but fitting. In the video itself there could have been a bit more "talking" and as it was a silent movie some more gesturing when people are talking would have made it easier to determine who was voicing what lines. The part where he became convinced his wife was cheating on him was a trifle unclear though that may simply be poor recall on my part. The sauce on the knife was a funny addition especially when seen with her clean shirt. What the project lacked in analysis it made up for in hilarity and creativity. Further It seems fitting to have it as a silent movie considering the age of the story. It was really quite entertaining. Marvelous job.

Today all of the presentations were very clever and absolutely hilarious, but I think that group 15 especially did an excellent job with their presentation on the Kreutzer Sonata. I thought it was very creative that they decided to put a modern spin on it with all of the characters, and I think making it a silent, black and white film with the music helping narrate made it even more dramatic yet still easy to follow. They did a very good job following the whole story line but still keeping their own style. In one way it was hard to relate very closely to this story, seeing as many of us college students are not married, but in another way they were able to capture the jealousy factor that went on in this relationship (although he may have dealt with it in a very unusual way). I think a lot of people experience jealousy in one way or another throughout their lives, which is a main factor in this story. They did a very good job of making this satirical and enjoyable yet understandable and relatable.

Out of the groups we watched present today I really felt they truly captured the creative essence of the Krutzer Sonata.  It's amazing how the music in the backround of a silent movie can tell a story on its own.  I really enjoyed the black and white concept and felt that they did a good job twisting the story just enough to make it interesting but at the same time did not kill the story.  The acting was good and the tidbits of humor really lightened the dark hard hitting tension of the Sonata.  I am a huge fan of the song so it was awesome to see it pop up as a creative project somewhere.  I think that the DJ and dancer comparison might have been a bit or a stretch but that would be my only negative comment on the work.  Media worked well and the entire work was very capturing.  The knife scene was particularly entertaining as was the end scene where the two riders of the train try to comfort the sobbing murderer.  It was kind of how I had pictured the scene going down, although I think that the murder scene could have been a little more dramatic because it seemed almost anti-climatic to be honest.  Such a huge setup, built by both the story being told and the buildup of the Sonata prepared me for a huge ending full of emotion and physical strife but it just wasn't there.  Overall my favorite project so far, in a day of really good presentations.

The presentations on Tuesday were all very interesting. My favorite had to be the very last presentation, group 15. Not only is Beethoven an amazing composer but also his work, the Kreutzer Sonata is a very exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat kind of composition. Group 15’s take on the song was very interesting. They used the story from “The Kreutzer Sonata” by Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy’s story fits well with Beethoven’s version. The characters make up a great story and they never leave the train. Reading Tolstoy I never got bored. He can go on and on about certain things but it is always really interesting and engaging. The use of a silent film made the story very interesting. It was really cool how they made it very comical and still very true to the story. You can tell that the group worked hard to put the film together. It turned out really neat. Having a dj was a cool way to make the story more modern and put a fun twist on the story. Great acting. The use of a silent film I think was the best way to portray this story. If they had acted it out with their own voices I don’t think it would have had the same affect on the audience. Having the song in the background fit perfectly. Have to say my favorite part was the ketchup as the substitute for blood! You guys did a great job Group 15!