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To be honest, I did not know what to expect coming into this class. Just the title of the course “Dreams” was intriguing and I could not wait to see what this class had in store for me. After reading Freud, I knew it was going to be cool to read other dream theorists to see what they had to say. Even though some have agreed with Freud, others have disagreed which created an interesting argument and opened up a whole new way of thinking about dreams. Then I was very excited to compare our readings with our Dream Blogs. I have some crazy dreams sometimes and it was cool to get everybody else’s take on them, as well as give them my input on their dreams to see what we come up with. I felt this class was helpful and unforgettable. I learned a lot more than I thought I would have. Not only that, but I look at things in a different way. Like this class, many of my other English classes had me reading a lot, and anytime I came across a dream sequence, I’d think of what we read in class! Now I’m interested in reading books that include Magical Realism, like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he is now one of my favorite writers! I’m also going to try and finish the Unconsoled over the summer. Since the Professor liked it so much, I’m excited to see how it turns out!
Overall, I’m definately going to take everything from this class and inform other people of what I’ve learned! Especially from the Research Paper. The way we went about revising, like highlighting the Claim, Evidence, and Analysis in different colors to express how it showed the balance of the paper, helped out a lot. I can definately use this technique in any of my other classes and I’m glad he broke it down the way he did. Not many Professors are that helpful and involved in their students’ works.

After beginning my first draft, I realized I was having a problem creating a clear thesis, and with this I knew my paper was not going to connect very well. Stressed out, I began just rushing through it trying to get my point across. Now that I got my feedback back from the professor, it helped out soooo much! Now, I’m really concentrating on the reader, rather than making it seem too “academic” sounding. I feel more confident now in revising my paper knowing that I have a clear direction in where I want to take it and have the reader understand what I want them to get out of it.
I’ll admitt I was a little nervous about starting it, but once we broke it all up into different processes, it helped me out a lot. Now if I ever get stuck, I just go to my Essay Sketch to help direct me. My problem with my research paper was the stitching pieces together to make it flow together well. Now I know how to grab the reader’s attention, draw them into my paper, and keep them interested!

This dream I had, felt so real. I was in the backseat of my friends car and we were on a block I wasn’t familiar with. There was a white car that drove past us and pulled out guns! So I ducked and layed down, but they didn’t shoot. I was soooo scared and I was also confused that my friends in the font seat weren’t ducking. Then the scene changes and this time, there is this weird circle thing that has like puzzle looking pieces, but they are disappearing quickly. The guys who were pointing the lon guns at us said, “We shot you, but you don’t feel it.” And the thing they threw us in the car they said was a device where it can tell what we are thinking and how we are feeling, basically like they controlled us. In a state of horror I threw it out the window figuring thry wouldn’t notice and it would all end.
Then the scene changes, and I’m in some parking lot thing. I’m sitting there and realize that my arm is swelling up and I’m all red and itchy. I began to get worried and was thinking since the guys could read my mind, they knew I was lying (about what? I don’t know) and that was the effects of that round device. Then the guys showed up, and I cried to them that I didn’t mean it, and they said they were just testing it out on us and laughed. I was ok after that, but woke up a little weirded out!

I took a nap during the day, and although I knew I had to wake up soon, I kept sleeping, I almost couldn’t wake up. This led me to believe that in my dream, I got out of bed, walked over to the light switch and I was going to turn it on, then I said to myself, stop it, you’re still sleeping, go walk back to bed and lay down so you can wake up. It was soooo surreal! I couldn’t decipher for a moment if I actually did get out of bed and then convinced myself I wa still sleeping and went back to lay down! This only happens to me when I nap during the day, I am in such a deep sleep that sometimes, although I know I’m sleeping, I feel like my dreams are real!

I think that everyone, at least once, has had a lucid dream. In fact I feel the times I have had them is when I nap during the day. I am in such a deep sleep, that sometimes, the dream feels so real, i need to remind myself that I am actually dreaming. I’ve even heard stories of my friends, who are really very innocent, in their dreams they were stealing cars and shooting people, and they were scared it was actually real, because it felt real to them. Another way to put lucid dreaming is being conscious as you are dreaming.

After seeing the exhibit, I have never been more interested in Salvadore Dali. His works of art that were expressed have similar qualities in each of them. Such as: reoccurance of eyes, elephants with long stemmed legs and just the essence of dream-like qualities. As the viewer, Dali has the ability to make us connect with his work and compare the dreams we have, with his works. One piece I can recall is the melting clocks. This was interesting because it shows how the essence of time in a dream is non-existant. It was also interesting to me the fact that he was involved with all of his works, he painted scenes himself and he also had a strong love for his wife.

After reading Jane Eyre, it made me more aware what to look for in the novel. I can see dreaming being an aspect. Jane Eyre loves books, which shows she is preoccupied with dreaming in a sense. This leads her to be in flucuating states of consciousness. And because she mostly spent time alone and by herself, she was in this fantastical kind of world. Since Jane Eyre made this connection between dreaming and reading it is her way of putting forth narratives in partial sensory isolation from the stimuli of the “real world”.

This dream, I was in someone’s house, which was also kind of outside. I’m looking or waiting for my friend and I don’t know where she is. Then when I walk down the patio steps, there is a VIP area with tables and bottles, and a red rope surrounding it. I see my friend chillen there, but the guy won’t let me in. So I call my friend and she ignores me as she’s flirting with the other guys. Then a guy a know comes by and the bouncer guy disappears and I walk right in. Then I woke up, weird lol.

I had this dream where I was in a road rules/real world challenge and I was on an island of some sort and the clouds were dark and gray. I was at the edge of a wooden dock and was ready to jump into the water with a life jacket on. The task was for me to stand in the water on a pillar while a shark came and I was not having it. Two seconds later I’m on the grass walking and a little boy is running in my direction. His name is Josh and behind him I see his parents, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. I tell them how I think he’s so cute and I hear her complaining about being tired. I remember responding to myself, Well of course you’re tired, what do you expect when you have seven kids! Then I’m over another body of water, a lake. And again the vision of a shark and the feeling of “I need to get away” is going on.

This is one of my friends dreams:
She was in the mall with her sister, not Roosevelt, one she didn’t even recognize. They are holding some type of convention of some sort for people with Down Syndrome, or that have some time of Autism. She is walking with her sister and two friends up and down the mall and feels like a guy is following her. She keeps telling them but they don’t believe her. As they were walking out to the car, the man followed them and her sister and friends weaved through a different set of cars as she did and the man comes up behind her and tackles her. He starts trying to kiss her and she was scared as she woke up.

After she told me about this, we discussed it and I asked her some questions.
This is what she told me:
She lives next to a guy with Down Syndrome, and talks to him and as no fear of him, as well as a friend down the block.
We spoke about the fact that she just made up this mall in her head.
And the fact that she puts trust in a lot of people she doesn’t know and doesn’t expect them to try anything like rape her for example.
These were just a couple of things that we mentioned to try and break it down piece by piece.. Any suggestions?
Also, this was a reoccurring dream she had.