Farewell!!!

Dear Classmates and Prof. Gross,
It has been a very interesting semester full of new things and full of new knowledge provided to us. This semester was the most difficult semester I have taken, and not because of this particular class, but because I have been multitasking with my personal life and 6 classes at AVC. Through it all, this class has taught me so much new things that have been kept as a skill. Blogging was actually the assignment I enjoyed the most from all the assignments we had in this class. The essay were very difficult to me, however, the peer reviews made the assignment be helpful and full of new ideas that I can include in my essay. Although this class was never taken in an actual classroom, I feel as if all the assignments we consisted of, connected every single one of us to each other. We all talked to each other somehow, either by responding to the blogs, or by peer reviews, of by the reading forum. This has been a good experience and I can actually say that this class has been the best class I have taken online. The professor made the class much easier and the assignments were given with enough explanation. Best of all the professor was available whenever we needed any kind of assistance.
Although I did not do very well on the essay assignments in this class, I can admit that I learned to cope and continue going every single week. The essays have taught me to gain so much knowledge in this class and it has also taught me to take my time and not do anything at last minute. Personally writing essays has been very challenging to me throughout my entire life. It is not something I enjoy doing, but this semester the peer reviews really made me feel much more confident on my essay because it have me feedback that I inserted in all of my thought when I would rewrite the essay assignments.
Other than all the assignments, I think the grading policy could have been better improved. I think that we did so much work with the blogs, the response to blogs, questions for analysis and so on. Yet, I do disagree with the fact that essay are worth more than our regular assignments. I personally think that the essays should have a great portion towards our grades, but I feel that the assignments also took up so much time and are only worth so little on our final grade. Regardless of what the grading policy is, this class is soon to be over and we have to move on.
Well farewell to everyone who took this class with me this semester. It has been a great pleasure to have worked together on a few assignments. Best wishes from now and on. Hopefully that everyone gains something from taking this class and hopefully your future is filled with very astonishing and positive things.
Geraldine

AIMEE MANN

Aimee Mann has many terrific lyrics in her sight. She is an authentic navigator and focuses on the less traumatic subjects, however she still conceives to have some kind of fear in her songs. Two other great songs I found were, Driving Sideways and Beautiful. Although both of these words seem very precise in action, and they are both a bit of an opposite, they are both indulged with fear. In the song Beautiful we notice that it talks about a fine day out on a date. She talks about how the date started and how good the kiss felt. However, she then questions why so much tenderness hurts her. Through the lyrics she repeats this statement a couples of times. Here we get the intimidation that she is trying to tell someone and to let someone know by her writing this song; however she wishes they can see it without the need of her voice to say it. She also says, how I wish you can see it, this shows that she wants to let someone know that although she makes someone happy, she feels hurt with so much tenderness.
The other lyric I found by Aimee Mann was the song called Driving sideways. Again the title both insinuates that they are two very opposite songs. They are opposite in subject, but just like we heard Aimee Mann scream out for help in the prior lyrics, we also hear her cry for help in this lyrics. In these lyrics we also see that Aimee Mann is trying to let someone know what is happening, but she is topics that they see it with their own eyes without the need of her voice saying anything. Here they are people driving in a car again. Then they must be intoxicated of some kind. Eventually the title tells us that they are driving sideways and something bad is happening. Through the poem we realize that they will never make it to their destination.
When we click together both of these lyrics we see that Aimee Mann has some kind of fight to gather up some kind of fear she has lived or she has some concern about and wishes to have spoken out without actually letting her voice say anything. Both of thse lyrics fight for a fearful voice that is hidden behind the voice of this lady. I believe that with her own personal style, Aimee Mann connects her lyrics with beautiful lyrics and astonishing results. She can tell us her fear and she even lets her voice speak out through this terrifying notion of words, but we do not see it bad since it is just another song that we interpret by the singer. Through her lyrics I also notice that Aimee Mann can be very short on her voice and lets the lyrics of her music somehow identify herself.

The Study of Creation

Studying and comparing creation myths teaches me a lot about myself and other. I had a different understanding of how we came to this Earth. Of course this is just another question that is answer with a myth. I actually enjoyed the three myths I watched, which were The Mayan, the Inca, and the Inuit. They all gave different creations that illuminated the world in different ways. Their creations were made by this Gods, however this is a question I can never stop asking myself because the truth is that I will never really know how was the first human ever created. Many different myths can give me an idea, but it makes no sense to watch many different myths and yet, not know the exact one. I am not really a “church” person, however, one time I remember asking my mother where the first person ever came from. She eventually started talking about Adam and Eve and how they committed a Sin and so on. This story gave me an answer, but did not give me an answer to the question that I was asking. Especially now that I have studied other creations of Earth, now I feel even more confused on what the truth of creation of the world is. I guess it is just a matter of pushing our own buttons and believing whatever myth fits, or we can simply create our own myth that will eventually evolve and that we will feel confident with in order to go along and continue answering the same questions to our kids, and our kid’s kids and so on.
Eventually through the study of the creation of Earth I learned that my life is very precious because although I was not the first one created, I was put on this earth with a purpose of learning to survive and to walk without the need to be destroyed. I also learned that we should not be destroyed in earth by other gods, but we do have to live our life and then eventually moved alon to let other humans live their life. Today I can ask many people the question of how the first human was ever created and everyone will have some difference in their story. However, this study has taught me that however the first person was ever created and however the first person ever walked on this Earth, we have evolved and have changed the world ourselves without following the nature of any God or any simple theme. The Human Nation has taken over the world and now there are thousands and thousands of our ancestors who we might never know anything about, but who we will fight in order to continue moving in life and ourselves becoming ancestor to a near future. Whatever it is we learn from now on will be what will most likely be passed on to the rest of the world in our generations because eventually technology will be different and although the myths will be surviving, the new generations will be over crowned with smartness on the technology issues.

The Understanding Of Lily

The relationship that Lily has with Zach expands her understanding of herself and of society, because it lets clear where a white person stands and where a color person stands. At the beginning of the story we see that a white person has a color lady as the maid and the nanny. The interpretation is set out as the force to conclude that color people were at times still used as servants, yet they were paid. Eventually we meet up with the climax of the story where Rosaleen is set in jail for spitting onto the shoes of three white man. I do agree this was a disruptive thing for Rosaleen to do but there was no real need to do such situation. We also read how these men were allowed into the cell of Rosaleen and beat her up. They were not incarcerated, yet the color women was kept in there. I feel this is very sad and se the idea that society was white and color people were never even cared about. In this time of the story if a white man would have been beaten down by color man than the color men would have been in jail in less time that we can think. Eventually the story progresses and color people and white people still have their lines of differences. It was not good seen if a white person was to be with a color person. The fact that her relationship with Zach could only lead to a certain point, showed that society was very stuck up with discrimination that no color person could have ever dated a white person and society would be okay with this.
The entire relationship that expanded from both of this characters, were put together as a form to show the inequality of the times in the years when this book was written. There is no real shadow that could have portray inequality than this couple. Zach also stated that when he becomes a lawyer and when he has money and when things in society are okay, and then he will come back and start a relationship with Lily. This is very sad because we see that although many different laws and constitutions were changing, society was not rolling any closer to identify what to do. The environment was still painted with a border line between the white and the color. There was no further difference although many color and white people would talk to each other.
Eventually Lily understands that Color people and white people could not mix in the eyes of society. It was like mixing oil and water. Lily, however found the home she never had with this color people and decided that she would work hard to changed things in life. The same way that Zach had one day told her that there will be a time when they, meaning society, pronounce that color people can be mix with white people and that will be okay in the eyes of the entire world.

writting topic pp 1326

An experience I can set myself on is the day when my parents’ divorce. I was young and did not understand what was going on. My strongest attachment was my father and the day he left the house, I felt numb. I could not concentrate, or feel any kind of pain. I was being torture and my feelings were staying blank. I was not showing any attachment to the situation, but I can feel a strong distraction from the world. I was neither altering to my perspective of life, nor was I overcoming the situation. It was just pain killing me in, and blankness leaking out. It was a tremendous movement in my life. Never did I think such thing can damage me this bad that I cannot control my actions, my desires, or my reactions to situations. I can remember being send to through the trash out, and in that bag, there was a piece of thick glass. A thick glass that arranged a deep cut on right side of my knee. It was bleeding and shattered. The thickness of this glass had crashed through my soul and I was not feeling anything. I was only depicting the blood that would stream down from my knee. And I remember my mother trying to take me to the emergency room, but I felt nothing. I was still in a condemn shock that my father had left. It was the worst day of my life, and I still have a scar left behind because of this situation. A pain I did not capture until days later, when I realize, this was no joke. This was my life.
I am not sure what animal I can compare myself to. It can be logically closer to any animal that can trace down the pain, and yet fell nothing until days have occurred.
When I look back at this situation of my life, I think how ridiculous such situation can make me react. In reality it happened when I was young and rather the shame must have been the one that kept me shock. When I look back now, it does not look as bad as it looked that day. This is because I did not understand what was happening. Now that I comprehend why things in life occur I get a better sense of why this happened and I am actually thankful that my parents situation ended in a divorce and not in a more tragic way. This is just a knowledgeable appearance into life.
With this in mind I can have the understanding that I learned a great lesson from my own experience. I learned that a child is naïve and can lose a lot of understandings of the world. It is not until we are old enough to comprehend, that we actually see what happened and how the problem could have been resolve to a better route. Indeed the child has a naïve mind, that which an adult overshadows and comprehends.

Is Suicide Ever Justified?

This is a very controversial subject in every point of aspect in life. The question may shatter many people, but at the same time it might just get many other people very upset. Many situations that have occurred where suicide is the last aspect of the subject, the situation can be very insignificant. For example, there is a time that occurred not that long ago where two young girls committed suicide by placing themselves in the middle of the train tracks. The train eventually took their lives away. The patterned under this problem, was because a young girl had lost her boyfriend and she decided to kill herself. In that thought her 2 best friends were going to kill themselves with her. However, when they set themselves in the train tracks, one of the young girls backed down. The other two, however, lost their lives. In such situation like this one, I cannot consider any thing okay with killing yourself. I am actually a strong believer that suicide is not justifiable regardless of the issues, or problems you might be passing by. We always have to remember that there are many people out there in the world that are less fortunate than us, and they are working very hard to stay alive every day. This is showing us that we cannot let a simple problem take us down. I have fallen so many times in life and I have felt very shattered, but from that, I have never thought about killing myself. This is because I always remember that somewhere out there in the world there is someone passing through worst situations than me. Such as the little kids that are hospitalized for a cancer. This subject always gets me sad, but in reality god has given us an opportunity of life. Unfortunately many of these young kids die at such a young age. This kids wish another opportunity in life, and yet there are those people that think that their life is the worst and is easy for them to take away the opportunity of life they have been given. It is sad, but true and many have to set foot on earth and realize that the world does not revolve after them and everything has solutions, we just have to have patience with life. Other than that, I feel sad when I talk about suicide because many times there is a question that is always asked, “Why did they do this?” unfortunately they leave this world leaving everyone that cared, behind with no answer to their question, just the sorrow of the lost one and the unpredictable situation of why something like this occurred. Although I do not believe that suicide is justified, I also feel very upset for the family, because they have no understanding and just the thought of such occasion can cause many disruptions and false guilt towards themselves or others. Other than that I would consider that many people that have thought about suicide might have an entire different view to life, but this stills keeps me very confused, because while there are people thinking about suicide there are those people that are thinking of a new way to survive.

Life is like a swing

I portrayed life as a swing. Many times there are people out there in the world who believe that nothing can ever be wrong at their sight. That can be a possibility, but we cannot live out here by deteriorating what we could have changed. At times we are overtaken by the power of certain little stigmas that astonishingly overshadow our lives. Such examples as when we feel superior to another person because of where we live or the money we have or even the car we are driving. I can remember an episode in my life when I was about 12 years old and I had a cousin who lived in very good conditions. We were the same age and he would always put me down, by telling me that I was poor and what so ever. I was young and little things like this really pushed my buttons. I always appreciated the fact that at that point of my life we were struggling to even eat anything on a single day. This situation really made me appreciate every single time my parents would go out and work for us to have something in our tummies. Now I see that same cousin of mine and I feel sad, yet appreciated at the same time. He has his own family, just like me, however, he has been struggling lately. I am not saying I am doing great, but I am surviving and I am working really hard every single working day in order to achieve. This is the reason I focused my thought on urging to the sensation that life is like a swing. When we are up high and doing great, then that feels really good. But when the swing goes down, and so those our life, then we feel really terrified.
I wrote a small poem that does not really rhyme. I focused this on the issue that a really closed friend has passed by and she decided to share the story.

How many times did I tell you crying
Don’t play with me don’t lie to me

Because your
Going to end up in the street
Wasted and lost selling your life.

I told you
Think of what you say
Don’t you see that life is like a swing

When the swing is up high
It feels really good
But once it goes down
That hurts very much

Now you see it
Today you see yourself lost
Selling your life
And here I am happy at life

Hope to god,
That you will soon dry up
And let the wind take you away

It’s not that I have hate for you
or would like to wish you your bad luck
but I would live appreciated
if at this time
you would go away from my life

Now you see it
Today you see yourself lost
Selling your life
And here I am happy at life.

Writting Topic #1 Modern Marriage

Modern marriages are very unrealistic. They seem to get more and more interesting as the years go by. Modern marriages are more of a hearts decision than that of a given choice. Through the ages, women's lives have centered about their sex role. Little girls have been told as soon as they could toddle that some day they will be brides, and a little later, mothers, and, finally, if they live, grandmothers. Every other activity--learning to spin and weave, cook and bake, dance, sing, and skate, whatever the current accomplishments of young girls are--has been directed at achieving a lifelong career as wife and mother. Where for men actual sex activity, however insistently it may intrude upon attention, is a matter of a few minutes, for women each of these few minutes is laden with commitment before and commitment afterward. Since WWII a new kind of marriage has developed in America, a marriage with greater frankness, greater articulateness, greater sharing than any we have known before in this country--an early marriage focused on having children in comradeship. Women, frightened by the possibility that a career might interfere with marriage and motherhood, have gone out in active pursuit of mates. Men, weighed down by the uncertainties of the cold war and the heavy income taxes, have relinquished the task of preparing for a secure old age for that of giving the five a.m. bottle and taking the children to the beach.
I have my own personal believe that modern marriages tend to have a more foolishness understanding underneath the actually meaning of marriage. Many years ago a marriage was plan and partners were chosen by their parents. Eventually things have changed and a few years ago, I consider that many couples would be more dedicated and incorporated with the actual meaning of marriage. Marriage was, to my believe, taken to a more responsible step. However, a few years have passed and new generations have taken the lead. The modern marriage activities seem to be more interested in the “marriage” part of life. Steps to getting married are taken at younger ages and are eventually torn apart because of the lack of responsibility. In the past years many young people who think they are in “love” take the steps necessary to get married, however they eventually realize that they were to young and did not know any better. Every time I look at simple situations like this one I realize that to some certainty, the marriages from past years have been more respectful and responsible to act upon then those of our modern years. Although I am only 20 and take a great consideration in my acts of getting married, I still believe that I was too young and irresponsible. I do not say that things are not working out, because thank god we have been very happy to this day, however, it would have been better if I would have taken a second moment to think and go out to the real world and decide on what to do, then taken the steps to have my family.

Virginia Woolf Writing topic #1 pp783

Virginia Woolf was a fantastic writer in her years alive; however, she lived many years ago when women were not viewed as any kind of material other than house wife. To be a writer in the Virginia Woolf age, it was really terrible and confusing. It was a sense of betrayal and repression and it was a form of rebellion from a women. I believe that now we live in a culture that deteriorates and argues towards women rights. And although we are not equal in so many things in the world with men, women now have the right to basically everything a guy has the right to do. Although we live in a society that now it is not out of the ordinary to see women have great pieces of literature, I believe that Woolf’s argument has not lost any relevance towards the attitudes to fight for human rights. I actually believe that Virginia Woolf is a leader to many women and an inspiration to many people in general. These attitudes towards women were very directly viewed. It was a mode of aggression and a mode of control over women. A woman would have been considering unordinary and non human. Woolf’s arguments really signify the attitudes that a woman has and still today we are seen as a minority group.
In fact I believe that the arguments that Woolf have in this essay of hers, really implores that a women should continue fighting through life. I agree that culture has changed significantly over the years, but we are a minority group still fighting out there. Woolf’s arguments, still to this day, work as a source of inspiration to many women that still fight for any simple or artistic right in the country. Even many countries out there in the world still have women very controlled and are not being given the liberty to enjoy and treasure life. Woolf also fits into the inspiration and influences for many women that one day wish they can own their own voice, and have a room of her own.
In my opinion I give so much credit to Virginia Woolf because she is a terrific literature writer and she has influenced many women in life. Virginia Woolf is like a civil right leader, her voice made so much to talk about when she was young and her voice made so much interest in her age, and still today we are being inspired by the writings she wrote many years ago. Every time I read her writings and her history I believe the inspired motion that is incarnated into every single word of the literature she has written. I view her notions as a distinct believe that if Virginia Woolf can overcome and write her literature in such a terrible time in a women lifetime, than every women can definitely work very hard to accomplish what they need to be accomplish. It is a matter of women strength and patience to overcome and to overrule the situations they are trying to overcome.

Writting Topic #1 pg 589

The short story “Marriage Is A Private Affair” by Chinua Achebe, is in short a story of marriage that occurred many years ago. Back then a person would marry someone who was chosen for them, now and days we choose who we marry and who our hearts love. In contrast from my parents, the father of the young man in this story gives his son his back because of an irrational marriage he did not put together. My parents are both very inattentive parents that I cannot recall a moment here they sat next to me and talk to me about anything that had to do with marriage. In this case I had set my own standards. However, although my parents did not talk to me about marriage, I understood for sure that they were not like old-fashioned attitudes that would accommodate the marriage themselves. Something I remember from both of my parents saying to me when I was young was that I should not marry a gangster, drug attic, or lazy person. They would tell me that to find someone with a good education and character to maintain his family stable. Although I did not marry a gangster, drug attic, or lazy person, I did not marry an educated one either, I chose who my heartfelt in love with and I am very proud, thankful and appreciated of my choice. Yet, the relationship between my sister and my father changed over a marriage situation. And although my father never set any kind of standards between husbands, he did not appreciate my sister’s husband and so both of his grandchildren from my sister’s side have not met him. Here I am comparing him to the grandfather of this story, because he is stubborn enough to refuse anything with the family, although his grandchildren would like to meet them.
If I put a little bit of a harder thought into this measurement, It could be possible that my parents might have an aggressive understanding to a marriage. I believe that both of my parents would be betrayed or at least felt betrayed if the person I chose was different than me. That can be in many outrages senses. I got married after my parent’s separation and putting this into thought my father would have a mere image of my husband. He has never met my husband, but I believe they would get along. We were both raised in the same neighborhood, he has a soft attitude, he has a sense of humor, and a very artistic character. However, my husband never made it past 11th grade in high school. He has achieved many goals in life, but my father will probably be upset at this, since he had education first in line. However, I really appreciate the fact that I live in the world of today and I am not over taken by the shameless attitudes of controllable parents who would rather set your heart down with whom they believe is good for you, rather than letting your heart love whom they desire.

Making Connections #1 pg 520

Doctorow’s essay is a very precisely offset essay which subjects the matter on religious infidelity. On the other hand we have the comparison of another religious essay but, this essay is more of a realistic look at the world and at the beliefs which many religions misjudge us by. Rushdie’s piece of literature is very interesting because it focuses its attention on writing a letter to the six billionth living person, he expresses many beliefs and disbeliefs among the religions and he also supports his ideas of how religion shouldn’t be chosen by one person but rather be adhere and perceive by oneself.
The title of both pieces of literature also has a wall between the title and the actual essay. Doctorow’s essay depicts the infidels and how most reality actions are force to use a religion aspect to make through their point. Doctorow has specifically justified and explained many religious aspects and how a human being is view of infidel for not following the rules of a text or what another human of that religion might say. Rushdie is more of an ironic speaker because he may be a religious person, but somehow he separates his personal moral beliefs and his actions to his own understanding of them, He also expresses that eventually everyone starts making a story of how we came to this life, and that we shouldn’t belief a text or another person explaining it because most of the time they are wrong. Both of this essay’s have the comparison way of uniting religion and rebelling against its belief, but they also differ in the way that one is specifically focusing on the religion infidels and the other one is hoping to show this six billionth person to imagine there is no heaven and to make up his own moral beliefs.
I personally found the letter written by Rushdie more intense and stirring. At times I feel he has great support for his arguments. He makes me belief the idea that we have to belief in ourselves and not a book. But then again I get push back to my beliefs in religion. He does contain many interesting justifications and actions of imagining that there was no heaven, but can you imagine what if there was no heaven?
Since I found Rushdie’s more intense and stirring, I also find it more persuasive. This essay caught my attention and at times changed my mind about religion. Although I consider the phrase “Imagine there’s no heaven” very heavy in action and a very dramatic sensation. It is a good thing we can imagine, but then again, if there was no heaven then we would have to rely on something else to lean our personal morals towards.
Throughout both essay the principles are the same because they are focused against religion, but we are being pushed in two different directions. Rushdie pushes his routes towards the phrase “Imagine there’s no heaven,” while Doctorow pushes his essay more of a compelling and justifiable way to look at infidels.

Writting topics p371#1

How do my tastes define who I am? This is a very smart question that every single person connects to. I consider myself to be a different person from most of the college students today. Other than being a young mother, many of my tastes define my attitudes of who I am. Several things such as the things I wear reflect who I am. Before my reflections I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. I am a Hispanic young mother who loves to go out and dance and spends lots of time in the park. I love Spanish music, and if I am ever seen in a club then it must be Spanish music. Most of my friends are older of age and most of them have kids already, which lead me to the point that I am not like most young college students today.
Now that I told you a little bit about myself I would like reflect on the tastes that define who I am. I am still a young girl which set me on the ship of being on “style”. I am not picky with clothes, but I like to look nice. I usually listen to Spanish music and I hate new R&B music or any new music that young people think its “cool”. When it comes to television shows, I guess I can rely on many different subjects. I watch cartoons with my daughter, sports with my husband and soap operas with my mother. I am just using the general lesson of the world and what’s on TV.
I came to like many of these things because this is what I always wanted to do. The music came from young age, but I was always listening to whatever was a good style of the young. Eventually I met my husband and he loves the same music I do. Which was great because I can finally listen to Spanish music without being embarrassed that I did not like what most of my friends did. Other than the music everything else came with the age and the different circumstances I was placed on by destiny itself. It was more of a matter of choice and desire, rather than a force.
I think many people in the world are happy on what reflects their personality and themselves. However, some people hide many things and what is really being reflected is the story they want to be played out. In my case I am straight out with the world and the way I am. I make everything reflect who I am and what I like. I lost any interest in having people being interested with me because I am happy with myself and with who I am. Most of all I believe most of my reflections define me as a young happy and interested person who is motivated in moving forward in the world.

Making Connections p161

Reading both of this poem caused so much destruction in my heart. They are two very opposite poems and, yet life is in between both. The poem Hanging Fire has an affectionate sensation of a young teen feeling isolated and different. Than in the poem From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old there is a young girl who looks up to the future and to the future of a younger child. Both poems have their own ways to explain things. Both of these poems have repetitions in their piece of literature that contribute to the entire thesis.

In the poem Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde, we see the repeated phrase “…and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed.” Just by this phrase we can see that there is a child still searching for his momma and his mommas help and yet, she is behind doors leaving him on his own. In this poem we see that there is a depressant expression towards life. This young man is thinking of what would happen if he was dead. This poem also expresses a sense of a kid looking for momma. He explains all the things he still has to learn and there is no one there to guide him, there is a door separating his childhood from adulthood which he cannot understand. He expresses himself in a way that makes me understand that he might as well be dead since no one will actually be hurt by this. This fourteen year old kid has no believe that he will lived through long enough to grow up and yet he still repeats, “…and momma’s in the bedroom with the door closed.”

In the second poem From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old by Hanan Mikha’il ‘Ashrawi, we see a better perspective of life with fear towards one thing. The repeated phrase toward the soldier with the big gun makes us understand that this four year old has fear to the soldiers out there. She has gotten an eye blown out and yet, this young girl still looks forward to the future and what she will do in the future and she tries to figure out how she will be able to see with only one eye. This young girl talks about life in a positive way and something she looks forward to. As for death, the young girl does not express any kinds of attitudes towards dying or leaving the world. She rather views life through the lighted route where she follows. One very interesting detail about this young four year old is when she points out about the nine month old that has lost an eye also. She considers the fear that the same soldier shot both of them and she says, “…but she’s just a ay who didn’t know any better.” This small phrase makes a very huge impression on the type of person this young girl is. She feels bad that she has lost an eye, and yet she still says that she has lived through four years already and this baby is just beginning to see. I think this young girl will grow up to have a generous soul to other humans of the world.

Making Connections #2 p96

The small piece of literature, Araby, is a very distinctively literature of a young person’s innocence and their experience. As I read this story I remember about a particular experience in my life where I had the same moments of attitudes towards a particular experience. This experience was when I was around 12 years old. I lived in this pink apartment building in the middle of a lot of drama, gangs, and bad reputation around the neighborhood. My father was a much overshadowed guy who did not let me go out and play unless I was going with one of my friends and that was not really often. We lived in the corner apartment of this building and we had a huge balcony that arrange from one side of the street to the other. Since I hardly left my house other than for school, store, or any family distractions, I would always be peeking out of the balcony and when someone would turn up to see me I would hide. I had no reason to hide, but my innocence would make me hide for no apparent reason. When my father finally gave me permission to go out and visit my friend down the street I left very happy, it was my birthday and my father forgot. When I came back many people I would pass by will tell me happy birthday and yet when I reached the door to my apartments I saw my father talking to his friend. I stared at him, waiting for him to tell me happy birthday and yet he never did. He just told me, “Who gave you those balloons?” I answer that my friends did and with careless motion he said oh okay and went on talking to his friend. I turned and walked up the stairs to my apartment door; I opened it and rushed to my room. I looked at myself in the mirror and with a very deep repression I was upset and my eyes were burning with anger and yet my vanity was stronger than my pain. I just stood plain ahead and never let a tear out of that moment. I then realize that I was not acting out of the selfless motives I thought I was because I never consider asking my father or letting him know what was wrong with me. I simply sucked it up and ignored any kind of motion with him the entire day. I believe my dad did remember it was my birthday, because he had finally let me out by myself. He wanted me to enjoy the day, and yet he never gave me a happy birthday hug. I eventually grew older and see the rage was useless, because my father had given me a birthday gift which I did not see at that moment. That morning he woke up and gave me a kiss and a hug, left me money and told me to go eat something with my friends when I was out of school. This was his birthday gift and I was so naive to get inner rage for my father forgetting it was my birthday.

Responding to Literature

Literature is a very broad judgmental word. It can consist of so many different aspects and views that it all depends on how you take in the aspect of literature that will prompt you to judging the definite ability to describe Literature. In order to broaden the idea of literature we have to understand it before we can give an accounted response to it. Reading literature offers a way to listen to the voice of the author in past years. We will respond to literature depending on our own personal perspectives and our own personal experiences on the topic or thesis of this piece of literature. There are various way we can respond to literature by assuring the differences between the works. It is not as simple as reading literature and right after that, write an entire analyzed essay of the story. It will take time, questions, quotes, important information and several facts, or even some research. It does not matter how long or how simple literature is. It matters how a person gives their personal perspective and then respond to that piece of literature. Some ways to respond to literature is by reading the work out loud, by trying to make a connection between the title and the body, do a quick write about the work and read it to yourself trying to explain what you are trying to write. You can also keep a journal where you consist it of asking questions, establishing a work thesis, gathering information, and organizing the information to put together and have a good response.

As a result of critical analyzing, our lives can make a drastically big change in the way we read and respond to literature. We can simply read a section of literature and have a basic understanding to it. Of course we can also take some time to analyze the work and come up with certain ideas and questions that we did not have prior to analyzing the literature. By critically analyzing a work we focus on what the author of such literature is trying to throw across. We can also read between the lines and express intentional responses to what the author is not writing but what the author is actually telling us. The focus of the literature is what is not what is written, but what is observed by the writer. Everyone can analyze the work a different way, and yet come up with the attitude of controlling the static response of the entire literature in whole thesis.

In short we can have and ease the analyzing process of literature by combining the readings and the logic attitudes of our responses. We can share the relationship that causes us to understand the writing better than what is written, regardless if it is a very short piece of literature or if it is a very large amount of literature. The point to becoming a very good analyzer or a very good writer in literature we need to have our minds thinking critically when we are reading a piece of literature.

Critically thinking literature

What is literature is a very deepened and unexplainable question that some of us ask our self. We believe we know the answer, but the truth is that we have to keep our understandings outside of the box other than just the basic and common responses. We have to think critically and that is what most of us run away from. We try to understand it and keep the understandings the easy way out. However, we eventually have to think critically for other things in our life. Yet, literature tends to signal that the fun is over. When we are asked to think critically we are asked the complex set of experiences that define us as human beings to analyze the work we encounter.

Literature matters to me a lot more when I think about it. However, I do not focus a lot of attention on that. Literature can be more difficult than fun, yet it is something easy to overcome. When we use critical thinking on literature it helps us focus much faster and the understanding is a bit deeper. Literature has a lot of importance to the fact that we have to critically read through our work. While we do this we have to ask our self a set of questions that we deepened and focus our understandings on. Such questions as what is the perspective of the author about his/her work? Those the authors experiences and views helps you like or dislike this work? Or does the author’s values and experiences reflect any of your experiences?

Literature has a very broad way of speaking to me. It illustrates the work and the understanding is much better. Depending on what kind of literature it is, the work can be an informative type of work that really helps and deepened my understanding when I read it and take the main points of the work. Through my entire school career, English has been my burden. It makes me a better writer, but at the same time it keeps me in fear in every single English class I take. It is a simple chain that causes a huge obstacle; it is English that deals with literature where we need critical thinking. Like I said it is a simple chain that has so much measurement of interest in it. Then again we use critical thinking in our daily lives but when I don’t see literature I don’t see any difficult in it and that is just the way I feel literature is carried among me.

I expect English 102 to alter my perception of literature in a good route. I believe this class will be another step of writing, critical thinking, and learning process on where I will try to do my best. I expect this class to be challenging and at the same time to make me a more competitive and skillful critical thinking writer. At the end of the term I hope that the world can be a step closer on leaving the fear aside and on making me a more perfectionist writer. Although through my past experiences that has not happened there is still the hope that that day will one day come.