Author: Mariana

The bully and his victim

If I were to be the judge in the case of the bully and his victim knowing that both of them were wrong, I would punish both, but since the victim took it too far by breaking the other boy’s knee I would put bigger consequences on him, he could have looked at other solutions, even change of school. As well as making the school take notice into bullying to avoid this situations happening again, the school is also at fault since they never did anything to help the victim. The age would be relevant too so I can make the decisions of their punishments properly but it is not mention.

The Merchant of Venice PR

Plays are complicated, personally I do not like complicated things, I usually get stress and bored. If I would have read the play alone I would have not understand it and have gotten stressed and bored about it, but the movie helped me appreciate the play, and both the movie and talking about it in class helped me understand it. Without this I would not have liked The Merchant of Venice but understanding it and analysing it was fun and helped me see different perspectives.

In The Merchant of Venice there were different interesting topics to analyze/notice, such as Portia dressing up as a man so she can defend Antonio showing sexism, how justice isn’t always completely achieve because there are situations where both sides are wrong and right in the play this included topics about racism and classism, and the relationship between Antonio and Bassanio which Shakespeare made us doubt about with different actions and conversations that could get confused with  homosexuality.

The relationship between Bassanio and Antonio was discussed in class a few times, viewing different perspectives I believe that this connection they seemed to have is seen as a father-son relationship. During the play Shakespeare shows different situationships in which they show how much they care about each other. Like Antonio helping Bassanio get the money he needed to pursue Portia’s hand, knowing the risk if he did not pay back, showing his support and how he would put a lot at risk to help Bassanio. Or how Bassanio the minute he found Shylock would take a pound of flesh of Antonio got worried and tried to get to Antonio as fast as possible so he could try to help him whatever it cost. Antonio’s mood seemed better when Bassanio was around him, and it was clear Antonio wanted to make Bassanio satisfied with his life. This types of situationships showed how good of a relationship they had with each other.

The Merchant of Venice shows different interesting topics which are entertaining to analyze. Issues such as classism, racism, prejudice, injustice, and more are noticed. All this made it an interesting read. I hope in the future we get to read more plays that have a movie as well making it easier to understand the play.

Langston Hughes Personal Response

I don’t usually like poems, I do not find them interesting, I believe it is because I don’t understand them. These past few weeks reading about Langston Hughes poetry, analyzing these poems, and raising different type of questions have been stressful for me because I do not understand poetry, but when I get to class and the poems are explained I understand why some people would describe poetry as art,  with just a few words a lot is being said, you just need to understand the background of the story, which is what I don’t like because there are a lot of different references which I don’t understand, but when I do I found them really interesting.

Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright and columnist, best known as one of the leaders of the cultural movement that was the Harlem Renaissance. He has a great impact in the movement of racial discrimination, he dreams with social equality, he uses his voice to achieve this, although high class society tend to be ignorant about people who they think are beneath them. A poem in which Hughes shows his dream is “Dream of Freedom” (l.19) “There are those who claim this dream for their alone. A sin for which we know they must atone. (ll. 5-8) This passage reveals that people with freedom keep it to themselves so they have more power, Hughes consider this to be a sin which they should compensate for. A poem in which he includes equality in is “Theme for English B” (l.14). In this poem he mentions how he is different because of his color but it does not change his preferences, “I like to work, read, learn and understand life” (ll. 22) and “I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races” (ll. 25-26)  This  passage brings up questions about race, identity and belonging. How does Hughes’ feel about his life, all he has gone through, his experiences have brought him to understand how life works when you’re an african american.

I have learned that poetry can be enjoyable if you learn to analyze it, there are a lot of different areas to discover in what seems a simple passage. I like how Hughes’ poems make a vivid imagery about what african americans went through, the struggles they had to pass through only because they were in a lower class. Today we are still fighting for equality, and strong voices like Langston Hughes help people be more aware about the importance of equality. I am glad each day we are growing as a community and achieving a greater future

Outsmart Your Brain

I have never put much attention into textbooks because I do not usually read them, when I was assigned textbooks I usually did not read them because I got bored, and I was saved because no one in the class did it either and the teacher never asked about it, so I have never taken it into consideration. After reading chapter 5 of Outsmart Your Brain I have learned that textbooks are organized hierarchically and their are different strategies that help to learn about the topic.

One strategy is SQ3R which is composed by Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review. This new methods of studying gives me better learning abilities which I will apply in my life to have better outcomes in the future. With this new strategies I believe my comprehension of assignments will be better because now I will take my time and start by asking questions first, and when I have done my reading and I have answer all my questions I will act as if explaining it to someone else which will help me comprehend what I just have learned and can also help me make connections of the reading since I am saying everything I remember out loud, finally I will review my notes and check if I’m missing something and if I had answer all my questions.

I found this strategies very useful, it is explained clearly, so it is easy to understand. I believe the methods I have learned by reading this chapter will be useful in my studies and will help my learning abilities.

Reflection on “Let Evening Come”

After reading the feedback on my essay I realized that I have grammatical errors, I need to be more careful with my spelling and write with a correct verb tense, as well as ending a sentence when I have finish the point in the sentence because if not the sentence is disorganized and confusing. I should also improve on quoting correctly by putting the line citation in parentheses at the end of the quotation.

Personal Response Antigone

In the story of Antigone we can truly see how things worked in the past, and how men normally would approach women. In this work I admire Antigone since I consider she was defying the laws correctly and with a purpose, even the citizens recognize that she was right, it even got to the point were Haemon supported the decisions she had made and told his father what he consider he needed to hear.

Before reading this I did not had a made up opinion about Creon, but now that we get to know him more I can say that he would be a person of my disliking due to his clear disgust against women, it is clear that he is a misogynist who has a lot of favoritism towards his gender, things that men do he considers that it is wrong for women to do it. Haemon even tell his own father how he should be more open minded otherwise he would be an empty king. Several people have told Creon that the people of his kingdom are only on his side because of their fear of him, and not because they support his ideas and the way he rules.

Now that I have think through this story I can sympathize with Ismene since I can understand her position of fear and how she did not wanted to challenge Creon because there was no certainty of what he would do to her although she is part of his blood.

In my opinion I believe Creon got what he deserved although a lot happened to him I believe it was necessary since sometimes something big has to happen to people so that they can understand that they are wrong, sometimes their mind does not allow them to see beyond their arrogance.

What happens in this story is truly how men used to treat women, and how they thought of them being less, which makes me thankful about how through time people have become more open minded like Haemon. I am grateful for people like Antigone who can sacrifice their lives for what they think is right, these types of people are the one who help us progress as a society. If we all had a closed mind like Creon’s it would be very difficult for us to evolve, but everything that happened to Creon in this story made me believe that the world has a way of making us learn from ourselves helping us mentally grow, although it can be cruel it is also illuminating for us too, as the experiences we live open new views of the world for us that help us see thing differently and act in a way that is more appropriate, treating everyone with the same respect they deserve regardless of their gender.

Personal Response – Oedipus

Oedipus the king was an interesting story for me since we can imagine a different world with just a few pages. This story made me think about how special is time, think about how time can change our beliefs which can make a whole society shift, things that were seen as normal before will one day be wrong, making you think of what society would you prefer to live in and how does that makes you the person you are.

I’m not used to reading in old english which made reading this a challenge for me, but it made it better knowing that it was a story I could actually enjoy if I understood what was going on. Stories are based on their main characters, so to enjoy a story the main character has to be interesting and Oedipus did not disappoint. In my perspective Oedipus was a great character for the kind of story they gave him. I believe the most respectable thing someone could do is owning up to their mistakes, that is something worth of admiring, and what Oedipus usually did was point the finger at someone else, although he did accept his destiny eventually, he still wanted to kill the man who saved his life, which was confusing since who could blame someone for not killing a child.

In a way I relate to Oedipus, I do try to help others but it is inevitable to make mistakes, and when life has thrown us too much in the face it is much easier to point the finger at someone else, although eventually we accept what has happen as well as the consequences that come along the way, which makes us grow as a person, and try to learn how to take our own decisions, maybe sometimes there not the best decision we could come up to, but at least they are ours, and what defines you is how do you react after something has crossed your path.