Author: Barbara

PW#2

Life as a boarding student on weekends

As a boarding student my weekend mornings are usually slow and relaxed. I woke up at 11:00 and head down to the dinning hall for brunch. This weekend, my friends and I decided to try a restaurant in downtown called The cactus Cafe Club.

After brunch we spend the afternoon talking and getting ready for dinner on downtown. In the restaurant I decided to order a salmon dish, while my friends ordered stake.

After dinner, we wanted to try out the new winter menu in Starbucks, and then went back to school and called it a night.

IRJE #2 The Cruel Prince

In “The Cruel prince” By Holly Black, the first book in a trilogy. Holly Black tells us the story of a young woman named Jude Duarte. Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later Jude wants nothing more than to belong there- but many of the fey despise humans. Especially the wickedest son of the High king. To win a place at the court, Jude must defy him-and face the consequences.

“I want to win, I want to climb up and up and up. And then I want to reach down and tell everyone who’s ever doubted me that they were wrong.  I don’t want to be a pawn in someone else’s game; I want to make my own moves. I want to be someone to fear. A blade to cut. A force to be reckoned with. I want power, and I am not ashamed of it.”

This quote captures Jude’s determination to forge her own path in a world that constantly underestimates her.  She rejects the idea of being controlled and instead embraces her ambition for authority, it shows her development from being a vulnerable human girl that depends on the murderer of her parents for protection into a fierce woman with strategic force, showing us her search for power becoming the force of her purpose and challenges in the Faerie realm.

“The moral equivalent of war” & “can real men live in a peaceful society”

In “The Moral Equivalent of War”  William James argues that true peace may never be possible because war fills the human need of discipline and unity. He argues that without war that gives the structure and discipline, society will become weak. James believe that war gives us focus and courage, and that people would have to find other ways to get this if war disappeared.

In “Can Men Live in a Peaceful society” Erick MacKnight examines how society changes after war ends, especially around masculinity and social norms. He gives us notes on how bourgeois were seen as too soft to be good soldiers and that in times of peace people look for rebellion and excitement, like bourgeois women wanting more the “bad guys” Suggesting that a peaceful society might not offer the sense of purpose  that people find in times of conflict.

Both essays suggest that people are driven by a need of control and meaning, people seemed to need this to feel united and that they had a purpose. Can society really achieve peace or will conflict always be part of human society? I find this question very interesting in class.

IRJE#1 The inheritance games

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is the first book of a trilogy series. In this book Avery Kylie Grambs a 17 year old High school student that was extremely poor. From living her life as a no one she was unexpectedly shoved into the spot light as the heiress of billionaire Tobias Hawthorne a man she never met. Before the Hawthorne fortune and mysteries that came with it, Avery was living a modest, overlooked life trying to keep low profile. But when Tobias Hawthorne left her his entire fortune everything changed in her life. She’s constantly in the spotlight of people who wants answers, why her? A total stranger to the Hawthorne family, who had been disinherited by Tobias Hawthorne after his death, the inheritance was tied with riddles upon riddles, danger and mysteries.

I had spent so much of my life trying to blend in, to go unnoticed, to avoid the kind of attention that could make me vulnerable. But now, in this world, blending in wasn’t an option. I was someone. I had to be someone. And for the first time, I had to figure out who that someone was.

Avery knows she have to grow up to handle the responsibilities and challenges she will encounter in the world of wealth, mysteries and danger. With this Averys character grows to adapt into her new reality, she realizes she has to be careful with the spotlight on her and living in a house full of a resentful family.

WW1 readings

The readings from All Quiet on the Western Front and the excerpts by Herbert, Chevallier, Barthas, and West show how hard World War 1 was for everyone.

In All Quiet in the western front, Erich Maria Remarque tells the story of Paul Baumer a German soldier. He his friends and comrades always lived in fear, sadness, and danger in the trenches where they would stay during the war. The war maked them feel lost to the point where they disconnected from their old lives. They didn’t feel like heroes because of fighting in the war, they just want to survive. The novel shows how war changes people, making them only want to survive.

The other readings give us similar information and scenarios of the war. Louis Barthas, French soldier, tells us how dirty, exhausting, and scary life in the trenches was every day. George Herbert and Gabriel Chevallier talk about how pointless the fighting felt and how war broke people.

The soldiers suffered from the fighting  the hunger, cold, dirt, and poor living conditions. George Herbert and Gabriel Chevallier also describe how the war felt pointless and how it broke the spirit of the one who fought on it.

About me

Hello everyone my name is Barbara, I come from Mexico, I was born in the us. I’m very exited to here and learn a lot in this class. I Have 2 siblings 1 older sister and 1 little brother, I also have two cats. My favorite colors are red and blue, I like to read, hangout with friends, cook, and watch tv shows, I like flowers and I love animals.