Author: Marcela

Response to “The Odyssey”

What I enjoyed the most about The Odyssey was how the author is presenting the story because it makes it more interesting. Starting with Telemakhos searching for his dad with characters along the path who tells him what they know about his father, Odysseus. This made me be intrigue of what is going to happen as there are clues and Odysseus comes up later instead of starting with the main character narrating the story. Adding up with Athena being involved in the events, this creates the connexion between the gods and Odysseus’ story. Following with Odysseus narrating his story, this immersed me into the storyline. Finally, Odysseus getting in Ithaka and the author making pauses with stories from the past and conversations between the characters, had me wanting to end the book and compelled to keep reading.

What I enjoyed the least about The Odyssey was the beginning and the introduction of characters because it got me confused. There are a lot of characters and family trees that are introduced, the storyline goes slowly at the beginning explaining what is happening and there are events that already happened before Odysseus went missing.

What surprised me the most is all the things that Odysseus needed to do and did so that he could come back home safe, from sailing home, to being in Ithaka and waiting the right moment to reveal himself to kill the suitors.

Pastiche on Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations”

Passage 1: Throughout the years I’ve been at this school, Brookes Westshore, is not my home; and my dad Miguel, living at home, and also my mom Adriana, were in Mexico are missed by me; and that Luisa, Rodrigo and Diego, my best friends back home, were also are missed by me; and that a combination of emotions comes and is intersected with home sickness, and the excitement to go home. That the light at the end of the tunnel, is the time when I get to go home; and that reason to be happy, when they receive me with a big hug, was the joy; and that cold feeling of sadness growing everyday, with that feeling of losing myself will come soon to an end.

Passage 2: A beautiful dancer, all in a beautiful costume, with great rhythm in her heart. A woman with no limits, and with grace in every step, and her hair moving around. A woman who had a big smile in her face, and showered with sparkles, and strehght to jump, turn, bend and stretch, with emotions flowing, and a message to transmit; who moved, and grooved, and danced, and who’s feet never stop as her mind was leting go all the feelings that cannot let her be herself.

Antigone Personal Response

Loyalty to the state vs. loyalty to family best describes Antigone.

As we know, Antigone is doing whatever it takes, no matter Creon’s law for her brother to receive a proper burial. The play clearly shows the two sides, the loyal to the state and the loyal to family.

The side of the loyal to the state is first shown when Creon declares that the body of Polynices should not be buried as he is a traitor of Thebes, Creon did not care that Polynices was the son of the king (Oedipus).  And no one standed against Creon, no one said nothing, the diction of the people of Thebes conveys that they were scared, like when the Sentry is talking to Creon about the body.  Then, they find out Antigone was the one who buried the body, Creon says to Antigone that she is the only one who thinks that the body should be buried, Antigone’s response to that is, “They see it just that way but defer to you and keep their tounges in leash” (page 84, line 570). This means that she knows people think like her but they prefer to not to say anything and to be loyal. Rumors of the people are mentioned but no one would do something about it.

The other side, the loyal to family is Antigone. She is disposed to die for her brother, she is not scared to confess that she buried the body and she argues about her point. Her priority is her family and she wants to end things how she thinks it is right no matter what.

Ismene is also evidence of the loyalty to the state vs. loyalty to family. When Antigone tells Ismene her plan, she is loyal and she is scared of Creon. But then, when Antigone is sentence to die, Ismene is also willing to die with her as she is loyal to her family.

In conlcusion, loyalty to the state vs. loyalty to family best describes the play Antigone as they can be clearly identified.

Oedipus the King Personal Response

The progression of ideas in this story is interesting because of the way the author organized and putted all the events together. The author joined the events by using lots of descriptive language so that the reader can clearly understand what is happening in the story and he also used the Chorus so that it is easier to understand the change of scenes.  It is easy to predict the end of this story, however, the author makes the story interesting by the different scenes, where lots of things are happening to Oedipus but in each scene, there is a different character who interferes with him and his life problems, which all of them are related to the prophecy. What it makes the story complex is that in every scene there is a deeper meaning that made me relate some events from the previous scenes, think about the character’s behaviour or think about what is going to happen next.

Turning Pages

Turning Pages made me think about how the written word can lead someone’s life as the person is growing and reading all kinds of books. Like Sonia Sotomayor who since she was little, books helped her in her life not only for learning new things, but also in making her fear of needles disappear, cope with sadness, and choose a career. This made me realize that you do not just learn with books, books can help you to make decisions of your life based on the knowledge you acquire and the interests that you discover by reading books. I noticed in the way it is written that the author wrote it in short paragraphs and added some analogies.