My Experience with the Blogs

Our whole blogging experience was a very interesting one but it is also a very different one. Not many people are able with computers although they should be and it is not an excuse to not posting the blogs on time it is something that it’s true. This blogging experience I believe that has helped some of us become more useful when having a computer in front of us but sometimes the blogs were not handed in on time and maybe that will affect their grade. It is a very different experience and I do not disagree with it at all because I think that students should have a little variety and that they should learn to do diferent stuff and also new stuff. The blogs also save us time and money on priting the papers and wasting them on ink. I like the site blogger.com because it was a very easy site to use and also very accesible once you got the hang of it. The first blogs were the most difficult to make because I always forgot the due date and/or the comments that we had to make. But as the semester went by I got used to making the blogs every sunday and at the end it was just automatic. I was not relaxed until I finished my weekly blog. The first ones were also more difficult because I did not know what to specifically write about of each story but the more I wrote the easier they got to write them and I also wrote them more gladly. In conclusion, our whole blogging experience was very interesting and it was something very different. Of course, like everything, it had it's advantages and disadvantages but I fully support it and I am glad that we did it.

Maus

“Maus” is considered to be one of the best graphic novels ever written. Art Spiegelman used his parents’ experiences and his relationship with his parents to write this graphic novel. I really liked it because it was very different from the traditional way of reading a novel for an English class. The graphic novel is divided into two volumes. The first one deals with the holocaust and the second one deals with the relationship between father and son. I liked how the author, Spiegelman, used animals in order to portray the people from different countries. My favorite although it didn’t had that much importance in the novel was the British portrayed as fish and the French portrayed as frogs. I liked it because I thought it was funny. I thought that was very disturbing when Vladik calls Artie, Richie at the end of the graphic novel. It made me really mad and it made me think really bad about Vladik and how bad a father he was because it made me think that he was being nice and was having a parent-son relationship with Artie because he remembered him of Richie. I think that people should know about this book because it can change the way they think of “comics” and the way they think of literature, because in a “fun” way Art Spiegelman told us about the holocaust and about his fathers’ experiences. This book is not only about the holocaust it is also about father-son relationships and Spiegelman portrayed this in a very good manner.

M. Butterfly's Discussion

The play begins introducing us the main character, Rene Gallimard. He is in his prison cell and he is describing it, also he is showing off by saying how everybody likes him and how he is a celebrity. The next scene there is a trio talking about Gallimard, he naturally shows off. They are talking about how mad it is what he had done. He then tells us that his favorite play is M. Butterfly. The main character in the play is Cio-Cio San. She is bought off by an American of the U.S. Navy. He buys her by approximately sixty six cents. We still don’t know what the insane and horrible thing was that Gallimard had done. Later on in the first Act he is talking with Helga (who is actually Gallimard’s wife), they discuss how the Chinese people hate the play because it demoralizes and gives a very despicable image of what the Chinese woman is. The person that plays the character Cio-Cio San is called Song. We later on learn that she is a spy for the Chinese government. She is also using Gallimard to retract useful information from him. At the end of the first Act we learn that Gallimard is sent back to France because he couldn’t finish the mission he was assigned to do. We can infer the reason he failed is because he got tricked by Song and also fell in love with her. The second Act begins in his cell in France, the second scene is a flashback to Gallimard’s and Song’s flat in Beijing, then we see Gallimard going to the French embassy and he learns some secrets from Toulon. The next scene Song is talking with Chin and telling her everything that she heard from Gallimard and Toulon and receiving new orders from her (Chin). After that we see how Gallimard is telling Song that he is going to divorce his wife and live happily ever after with her. Later on Chin founds out about Song and Gallimard’s affair. Song is tortured for being a homosexual and insulted gravely. The third and last act shows us the trial that is condemning Gallimard for treason. Gallimard finds out that the love of his life and his special woman is actually a man. He can no longer live with this insanity and this irrationality so he decides to kill himself by sticking a knife to his body.
This play confused me a lot because I always mixed up the different settings and the parts that were actually flashbacks and what was actually happening. At the end of the play he says that he is Rene Gallimard, also known as Madame Butterfly. This part actually really confused me. At first I thought that maybe it was all a product of his imagination but I didn’t think that was possible when Song was standing in front of him smoking a cigarette. I think that he was in love with himself, or better yet he was in love with the person inside of him. I think this is a very disturbing play because of the ending. I didn’t like it at all and besides it was very confusing.

The end of poetry

This week in the English class we finally finished the poetry section. I really hate poetry. I don’t like it when things are not what they appear at first or when what they say means something totally different from what they really mean. The only thing I liked about poetry was analyzing the stanzas. Defining the stressed and unstressed syllables and the patterns each poems had. Besides that, poetry was kind of boring. I didn’t like how the book divided each poet as a chapter. The chapters should have been divided, in my opinion, by styles and types of poems. If it were me I would have given a totally different approach to poetry than the book. I can’t wait to start the Drama section of the English class.

JUSTICE by Langston Hughes

This week in the English class we discussed a lot of Langston Hughes poems. What I find interesting is that he is rather literal and all his poems dealt with topics of racism and prejudice. I really like his poems and I familiarize with them in some aspects. I can obviously understand why did Langston Hughes wrote this poems. He was black and lived in the 1960’s United States. Therefore, he lived in a very discriminating time, especially against the black race, his race. Although racism is not so known now a days we can see still that there is racists and racism in the world. I want to discuss the poem “Justice” which was not discussed in class. The poem is real short so I’m going to write it and then discuss it.
That Justice is a blind goddess
Is a thing to which we black are wise.
Her bandage hides two festering sores
That once perhaps were eyes.
This poem is very literal, although it uses several symbols these are pretty easy to understand and interpret. On the first line he means to say that the American justice only does justice to what they want to do justice, on the second line he means to say that black people know that justice is not on their side, so they probably know how to deal better with it than most whites. The bandage he’s referring to means the way justice hides the injustice some people go through. When he says that once perhaps were eyes, I think he means that people used to see justice how it is supposed to be seen but now a days things doesn’t work like that. The two festering sores are obviously referring to the eyes.

Our First Essay

Last week we were doing our first formal essay for the English class. I picked the first topic question. This question was about how Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” influenced Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner’s stories. These stories were “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “A Rose for Emily” respectively with their authors. I chose this topic because I found it really interesting that Poe’s work influenced so greatly other writers. At first, when reading the stories in the classroom I did not see the influence Poe’s story had on the others. But when comparing the elements on each story and analyzing them more carefully I could see how “The Cask of Amontillado” influenced both stories greatly. I think I did a pretty good essay and I’m looking forward to the second one.

I also like a lot what we are doing now in the classroom. Poetry is very different from prose writing and I find it more interesting than prose. It has so many elements and it also has a lot of variety of style. I like looking for the stressed and unstressed syllables and finding the sequence of each verse and stanza. I’m looking forward to learn more about different types of poems and I would also like to write a few in class.

Reflection #4: The worst risk in life is not taking one (Eveline)

Life is all about taking risks and overcoming your fears. Eveline’s life was not easy. Since her mother died, she had to take over all of her mothers roles in the house; and her father did not made it any easier on her. Eveline had the chance to take the risk of leaving everything behind and go to a new life with Frank, where she didn’t know what it was going to be like. That was what made it a risk actually. She decided not to take the risk. In my opinion, she didn’t take the risk for three reasons. The first reason is that she had fear of the unknown, by this I mean that she had always had a very traditional and normal life but she had never experienced the unknown and she was afraid of what was going to be like in the new country she was going to. The second reason was that she missed the way her father used to be and she also thought that he might be like he was before all the tragedies had occurred in his family. The third and last reason was that she actually didn’t love Frank. He was her “tissue paper” by this I mean that he was comforting to her when things were not that good, it also means she a shoulder to cry on; but deep down in her heart she didn’t love him at all. I agree with the decision she made because leaving her father behind was not a very good thing to do. I think that taking risks is what life is all about and that these risks are the one’s that make you prosper and become a better person but taking risks is not always the best move in life. That’s why balance is so important to succeed in life.

Reflection #3: Alcohol can kill People (The Cask of Amontillado)

The Cask of Amontillado was written by Edgar Allan Poe. The two main characters in the story are Montresor and Fortunato. In fact, they are the only characters in the story. This story was amazing. I dare to say this because Edgar Allan Poe said so much in so few words that I don’t think many people are capable of doing that. The main topic of the story is irony. Irony is portrayed in the story when Fortunato, a wine connoisseur, dies by being tricked into tasting wine. I really liked this story and there is not a single thing that I would change in its plot. Montresor was a brilliant man and he was portrayed as a very rancorous person, but what Edgar Allan Poe lets us to find out is that Montresor isn’t that way because he wants to. Montresor was raised like that since the day he was born. We can deduct this when Edgar Allan Poe tells us the family motto, “no one attacks me with impunity”. Impunity means that when you do something wrong you do it without getting caught or without paying the consequences. Therefore since Montresor was deeply offended and insulted by Fortunato, Montresor is not going to let him insult him with impunity and he is going to make him pay. At the end of the story we can infer that Montresor was starting to regret killing Fortunato. This leads us to another theme in the short story which is forgiveness. In conclusion, Edgar Allan Poe talks about irony, vengeance, rancor, and last but not least forgiveness. I used the topic alcohol kills people to use irony just as Poe did in his story. It is ironic because alcohol can actually kill you, but that is not the reason Fortunato died even though it was related with it. In conclusion, Edgar Allan Poe tells us a lot in very few words, a very simple plot and only two main characters; not everybody can accomplish that.

Reflection #1: The Hills like White Elephant

The story “The hills like white elephant” was very different from every other story that I have ever read. It did not give many details and it made it a little hard to understand. In fact I think that Ernest Hemingway did it on purpose to make us interpret the story in our own ways. I really liked the story because not every story deals with topics like abortion. It is very original and in my opinion it makes us think about that situation and what would we do if we were the characters. Since the author gives us so few details and does not tell us if the girl went on with the abortion it makes you analyze a lot more than if the author would have just gave the details in the story. I think that the girl after went through with the abortion. I think she was thinking of having the baby instead of having an abortion but in the end the American guy’s influence was too heavy for her too think otherwise. Nevertheless, after she went through I think that she realized the mistake she had made and also noticed that the American guy was a very bad influence and she left him. This situation made the girl matured a lot and became a more responsible person. She was very ashamed of what she had done but in the end she went on with her life and lived a mature and responsible life. To conclude, I must say that I really liked this story even though at first I did not understand it very much but after discussing it and giving a lot of thought I really liked the story and I also liked that I could be the one that imagined all the details instead of the author just giving them to the reader.

Reflection #2: A Good Man Is Hard to Find

The author, Flannery O’Connor, uses a lot of description to write the story. This makes it very easy for the reader to know how the story goes. O’Connor described every single detail she could about the setting of the story. She described the cars, the personalities of the characters, the clothes they wear, the roads, the surroundings and every single situation of the story. The grandmother was Bailey’s mother, she was what a consider a normal type of grandmother, very conventional, makes stories about her past and when she wants something she tries to obtain it; like for example she wanted to go to the house she was talking about and she made up the argument about the secret panel in the house so the children would get excited and would made the father go. John Wesley and June Star where very smart, they were outgoing children, but they were also spoiled brats. We can see this when Bailey didn’t want to go to the house that the grandmother talked about and instead of trying to convince his dad in a rational way they started screaming and manipulating his dad telling him that they never did “anything fun”. Bailey, the father, was a very reserved person, he liked tranquility but he also was a loving father. The author doesn’t focus much on the mother nor the baby so basically few things are said about the mother and the baby and it makes it almost impossible to the reader to draw conclusions about these characters personalities.

I really liked the story because you always kept thinking what was going to happen next. What I didn’t like was the ending because first of all everybody is killed and second of all I didn’t understand why the grandmother told the Misfit “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” I also didn’t understand why the Misfit said that he didn’t enjoy killing but nevertheless he did it anyway. The whole story was pretty clear till’ the end that got me a little confused.