Keeping In-touch

After reading and discussing three of Langston Hughes' poems in class this week, we were asked what one of the themes he created was and how he used verisimilitude to foster his that theme. After thinking about all the poems collectively, I concluded that one theme was to stay connected to your roots and heritage. Hughes emphasizes his point of staying connected with your past in his poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", when he writes "I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins"(Hughes). He is saying that he knows all this because he understands his ancestors, they have passed the knowledge down to him so he knows where they came from the the struggles they overcame ("human blood"). As the poem continues Hughes incorporates allusions such as the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile, and many more known rivers. His allusions create verisimilitude, which, in turn, help foster the theme. The rivers he has mentioned have all contributed to great historical events, for example the Euphrates is located in the area of the world where civilizations was first formed. In his poem "The Weary Blues" Hughes also establishes verisimilitude by using colloquialism and first person point of view. The colloquialism add to his theme of connecting to our heritage because he is writing in the way his people actually speak. And finally, the use of first person brings in a personal touch to his pieces which allow readers to understand that he, himself, believes in the importance of being in touch with your roots.

All that Glitters is not Gold

This week we read three of Francis Scott Fitzgerald's pieces in class, and as we read these pieces our class realized that Fitzgerald stuck to the same theme in all of them. The theme of human's disillusioned dreams ending in disaster was prevalent in all his stories. In The Great Gatsby, Gatsby wanted Daisy, whom he viewed as the "American Dream",because she was beautiful and rich; On the surface she seemed perfect, but on the inside Daisy could really care less for Gatsby because she was a materialistic and selfish person. In the end Gatsby ended up dying for someone who didn't care about him. In Winter Dreams, Dexter was mesmerized by Judy Jones' beauty and riches, but once he got to know her he became disappointed because she did not live up to his expectations of her glamour. Finally, in The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, John Unger fell in love with the Washington's lavish lifestyle, but after he had spent enough time there he started to learn their secrets... their psychotic secrets. Most people would think that people with tremendous would enjoy sharing their wealth and would want other's to know of their status, but the Washington's basically killed or imprisoned anyone who found out. Because they were suffocated by the secret of their diamond, the Washingtons could not live normal and happy lives. These stories exemplify how people glamorize things more than they should and they build up their expectations until it all comes crashing down on them and they realize their mistake. Dexter and John were lucky enough to realize in the end that having everything you dreamed of does not mean you are happy or content, and they were able  to go off and live their lives with this new found knowledge. Those of us lucky enough to be in AP english have had the chance to break down these stories and learn from the mistakes of these three unfortunate men. Things are not always what they seem.

Start 'Em Off Young

This week we were introduced to a poem called “The History Teacher”, by Billy Collins, that showed a history teacher teaching his students about disastrous events; Instead of telling the kids the truth about what really happened, he completely changed them. Even after expending all his effort trying to maintain his students’ innocence, at recess they still went out and tormented other children on the playground. The teacher had good intentions; I mean everyone wants to keep his/her kids pure and safe right? But, at some point these truths will reveal themselves to these kids and they will be hit hard with the hand of reality. Children should learn about historic events, even the horrible ones. I know somebody will question, “Should we really teach first graders about the slaughter of millions of Jews during the Holocaust?” but it is not necessary to tell them the full extent of what happened, teachers can just merely say that many Jewish people died because a mean Nazi didn’t like them. They will still somewhat comprehend what happened. We need to face our demons in order to learn from them, how could we stay away from our mistakes in the past if we didn’t know they happened? We would end up doing the same thing as our ancestors did. It is better to start learning about these event at a young age.

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     In an ever-changing world, a standard form of punctuation is necessary, because it enables writers to write in a clear and concise method that portrays their ideas in an efficient manner.
   
     Many people suggest that punctuation should be modified to parallel our advancing society. It is understandable that people would desire this change, as we have entered a new era of communicating via text, tweets, and Facebook messages/ statuses, and much more. These do not require apostrophes, commas, or even periods to deliver the intended message. However, punctuation is "vital for clear, effective, and consistent communication" (Source A). For instance, in the source containing the cartoons, two identical sentences have completely different meanings due to minute changes in punctuation. Whichever message the author wanted to convey is entirely dictated by the punctuation he/she chose to utilize. To continue, a lack of a standard form of punctuation would be inefficient, as it would hinder the reader; readers will have to exert extra effort in tryings to decipher the author's intended meaning from the continuos string of words they are reading. To save readers from this inconvenience, Dolnick states that "semicolons, along with exclamation points and dashes, and whole sackfuls of commas, are...vital tools in keeping...the "stream of thought" from appearing to the reader as a wild torrent"(source E).  Punctuation is a major concept of literature , and without a definitive set of rules of how to use it , clarity will be lost.

"Neither can live while the other survives"

This week we read a piece titled, "There is No Unmarked Woman" by Deborah Tannen. In her piece, Tannen uses personal anecdotes, such as the one in the business meeting, where she explains how she immediately begins to judge the other women around her based on how they dressed, how they did their make up, and how they styled their hair. She then contrasted her view on the women with how she viewed the men in the room; Tannen did not have much to judge when she looked at the men, because, besides the color variation, they basically all wore the same suit and tie and dress shoes. To further her claim that no woman is unmarked, Tannen continues to provide sturdy examples of markings such as titles (Miss, Ms., Mrs. Dr., etc...) or word endings (actor, actress, etc...). While reading this piece, I could clearly see how clothing marked woman, as there are so many different styles and ways to pair clothing together, but I never thought of how our titles could mark us. Tannen's piece really opened up my eyes to the many ways women are marked, and it made me sad that women are still treated and thought of in this manner. As much as I try to, I have yet to think of a solution for this problem. Our society has become so focused on self-expression, which is good, but that is a major cause of our markings. The way we choose to express ourselves will determine the way others judge us. It would be very difficult to solve the problem of being marked, without taking away self-expression.

Can of Pop

As we proceed in reading The Scarlet Letter, I am starting to see a moral lesson beginning to form. Humans are not meant to keep things to themselves, we are meant to express ourselves and share our emotions with others. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester expresses her sins and fully embraces them by wearing the scarlet A. In doing so, she has rid herself of the heavy burden of guilt.  On the other hand, Reverend Dimmesdale kept to himself and never opened up or communicated to anyone. In turn, his guilt started to eat him away from the inside. He became ill and started to wither away; as for Hester, she was healthy and had a radiant glow about her.  It is not healthy for humans to keep their emotions bottled up; we are born with mouths for a reason, to communicate (and to eat). This can be compared to a can of pop. Once it is disturbed, the disturbance will cause the pressure to build inside the can. The can can only stand so much pressure, and once the amount of pressure inside exceeds a certain point, the can has no other options than to burst. If Dimmesdale does not confess his sin, he will explode from the pressure of his sin and guilt building up inside him.

Enjoy Simplicity

This week we were asked to come up with a motto that represented ourselves. I came up with the motto “Enjoy Simplicity”. Lately I have been stressing out about schoolwork and ACT and SAT practice. I tend to over think things and overwhelm myself, so I chose this motto because it represents the fact that I need to slow down and cut unnecessary things out of my life. I need to keep things simple, and enjoy them. I drew a lotus flower as the image for my motto, because lotus flowers represent a pure mental state. I also chose the lotus to represent my motto because it makes me feel at peace. I need to learn to relax and not be so uptight all the time. If I just relax and sit back and enjoy what is happening in my life at the moment rather than what will happen in two years, I can relieve some of my stress. Even though, I should worry about my future, I should not let it completely over take my life right now. This also ties in with some of the pieces we read last week: “Thanatopsis”, “A Psalm of Life”, and “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls”. These Poems were Carpe Diem poems and instructed the reader to make the most of every day because you never know what will happen tomorrow. I interpreted from “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls”, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, that you should try to achieve something in your life that leaves your mark behind. Because if you do not and you only leave a small footprint, “the little waves, with their soft white hands,”(line 8) will just wash it away and no one will know of your existence after you’re gone.

The Pursuit of Happiness

This week in class we read the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration says that we, as Americans are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yesterday, I watched the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. “It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…how did he know to put the pursuit part in there?” This line of the movie made me think about why the Declaration didn't just say "happiness", but said the "pursuit of happiness" instead. I believe that Jefferson added "pursuit" because people are automatically given life when we are born, and we are automatically given liberty by being Americans, however happiness itself needs to be earned. We can't sit around waiting to be happy, we need to go out and find something or do something that will make us happy, even if we don’t actually achieve it, the process and effort it takes to get there is worth it. Everyone’s happiness is achieved differently, some people can be happy by themselves; others need to be social to be happy. Reading, painting, running, watching movies, twitter, whatever it is that makes you happy, go for it, because as Americans we are given the right to do so.