The Sons of Katie Elder

Didion based a lot of her ideas on gender roll from the John Wayne movies. She said that John Wayne was a mans man. He never backed down and always did what was necessary. From the trailer of the Sons of Katie Elder you can see in the bar fight that he stepped up to protect his little brother when he got in some type of trouble. So in terms of being a man I think Didion learned that you have to stand up for what you believe in and you have to do whats necessary for your family. I guess you could say that the man in the family had to be the toughest one in the family and to whatever is needed to make sure that everyone else is happy. You can tell that she believes this because she falls in love with the line he says he will build her a house, at the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow. 

In terms of a woman's role I guess you can say that women should find the right man to protect her and get her whatever she desires. However a woman still needs to be a little independent and help her man in the any way she can. This idea might be brought up with the fact of the women who tried to "tame" the Elder brothers. 

The movie that really changed my perception on things and really impacted my life was "Wall Street", not the one that just came out but the original that came before. I saw it when i was with my dad when i was about 13 and the movie really taught me a lot. It told me that the people who are always looking for handouts are weak and that if you really want something then you yourself need to go out and make it happen. Ever since then I have never asked anyone for money or a handout. I have this picture in my head of what i want to become and the only way that I will be about to reach that person is by doing it myself and not expecting anything from anyone. It also taught that most people have their own agendas and that I have to be careful of those agendas because they might come back to bite me. 

Shitty first drafts and me

The article had a lot of points that are very similar to what happens when I start writing my "Shitty first draft". The main aspect that I noticed with Anne is that when she starts writing she just lets it flow and whatever comes out in whatever order she just writes it down. I noticed with most of my writing the same thing happens to me. I start writing and just this influx of thoughts start rushing out and if I don't write it down I will most likely forget it in that split second. You'll probably notice that with this post cause I'll have a lot of grammatical or spelling errors. I think the way that Anne separated each component of her paper by draft was awesome. Each draft was directed towards a specific problem rather than trying to fix all of it in just one sitting.



Like Anne I kind of get all these ideas and most of the time don't write them down because I am so set on having a perfect first draft rather than a shitty one. I like her should probably just write down all my thoughts as they come even if they are in a disastrous order and later go back and take it apart one section at a time. I think what I get more carried away with while drafting is worrying about grammar and spelling. I am constantly stopping and trying to fix any spelling or grammar issue which I think takes a lot away from my writing cause I stop my train of thought to fix a meager problem which I can wait to fix a little later. What I don't really do is unfortunately is revise well. I look at my papers and think hey there perfect when in reality there is so many mistakes its not funny.


My writing is wood carving. I start out fast and then as I work I slow down a lot because I try to get the details perfect so when I am finished my creation is perfect the first time and I don't have to go back and keep working each detail.