Friday, January 13, 2012

Choice

 Life is all about choices, either they are good choices or bad choices but once we make our choice we better hope it was our best one because the wrong choice can be our last. In my life I have made many bad choices. Luckily I've gotten the chance to learn from many of them and I hope I get to make better choices throughout my life.
 In the poem "The Road Not Taken" the traveler saw two roads, He wanted to travel both but looked down one road and decided to go the other way. The roads had yellow woods, if he wanted to he could come back and try the next road but that's not how life works, all he could do is hope he took the right road that will take him where he's going faster.
  In the story "LA LLORONA - A HISPANIC LEGEND''   Maria a very beautiful woman who was conceited and cocky, always felt no man in her village was good enough for her, till one day a man who she always imagine as her dream guy came in her village and they fell madly in love and even got engaged and married. Unfortunately after a while the husband got tired of the beautiful Maria and went back to his old ways and would leave town for moths and only come back to visit his kids. Maria got so jealous that her husband only paid attention to the kids that one day she through her kids into the river. When she realized what she had done she tried to run along the river side but it was to late. The next day  a traveler came to the village a warned people that a beautiful woman laid dead along the bank of the river, the beautiful lady was maria she killed herself because she felt bad for what she did to her kids, the myth of this story is that till this day "LA LLORONA" which means the weeping woman cries along the bank of the river asking "where are my children''.
 In the story "DEAD END" Maria is a very educated school girl who wishes she could be like some girls from her school because they were the "cool kids'' always arriving to school late, getting suspended, dressed very nice and always went out on the weekends to drink, smoke dope and chill with boys in their rides. As she thought bout these things she remembered how her mother always stressed education because growing up she didn't have a chance, it was a guy thing. As Maria mother laid on her death bed maria promised to continue with her education and the thought of her daughter becoming someone important in life maria mom sadly died with a smile on her face. Maria had a crush on a boy named Frankie in school he was very popular and nobody messed with him, all the pretty girls in the school thought Frankie was to popular to be into Maria but what no one knew was that Frankie did want Maria because she was different from all the other girls she was smart and always answering all the questions the teacher's asked. One day Frankie asked Maria if she wanted to cruise in his car, Maria said yeah when he parked his car after the ride and finished smoking his cigarette he went in for the kiss, Maria kissed back but when she felt Frankie hands all over  her body she brushed him off. Frankie then took out a joint of marijuana and tried to make Maria take some pulls but she made the choice not to.
 Setting in any story or book it's the place where everything is going on. Settings is important because it paints a imagine in the person head of where certain events is happening at, one setting in the story was when Frankie and Maria were in the car on top of the bridge where La Llorona always comes out at night.
 The main character's in the story is Maria and Frankie, Frankie almost became a negative influence on Maria because he was trying to get her to smoke and allow him to touch her and have sex with her.
Maria made the right choices and didn't smoke or let him touch her, although she wish she did she thought bout her mother the whole time and kept remembering the promised she made.
 Promises is always important in life it is hard to have people trust if your always going around breaking promises, promises has everything to do with making choices because a promise would motivate you in life, for example Maria's promise to her mom about finishing school and letting nothing come before it.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Satire

Satire is the use of irony, sarcasm and exposure of a person weakness in a humorous way mainly because all things are taken in better with humor. It's basically a nice way to correct bad behavior. A person would often exaggerates on a subject, person or thing but it's to criticize and help for the better. One example of satire is when I'm with my basketball team and if I had a ugly shooting form my teammates would make fun of me and criticize me but only to force me to improve on my shooting form. This could be used as motivation to push forward and become better.
In "The the impotence of proofreading" by Taylor Mali the satire of the story is how to spell without having to use spell check because a person that doesn't know how to spell can't tell whether or not it's the correct spelling. My reaction to this story is it was funny and hard to read with all the misspelled words, but I understand it's just to prove a point.
I read a article  called "NASA Completes 52 Year Mission To Find,  Kill GOD" This story is bogus and fake because it said the astronauts were scared to go out to the moon because god would punish them for entering neutral grounds. It also said the astronauts grew up their whole life trying to find and kill god.
In "Advice To Youth" by Mark Twain there were many examples of satire. For example when he said if a person ever offends you, you have the right to think if it was intentional or not, if it is then wait your chance and hit him with a brick. This was all said  after the fact he said respect your parents, friends and even strangers. Another one is when he says if were going to lie then make sure its a good one because if not then were going to get caught and after you get caught for lying no one will believe you anymore, he suppose to be giving youth good advice and he pretty much giving us the okay of lying and hurting people as long as we don't get caught.
In the short story "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, JR there were many examples of satire in it. For example when he said everyone was equal in every type of way. From looks to intelligence and even to god and the law, this is impossible because if this was to be true then there would be no point in anything because we would be just like everyone else. No one would be special or unique.
In "NEWSHOGGERS" by Cernig the satire of the article is that a British resident was looked as a terrorist  because he got on a fake website called "How To Build A H Bomb" the only people who took this serious was the C.I.A. they should had known the website wasn't a real one.

The satire of the political cartoon I chose was of Bush talking bout his battle scar from the war and he asked does anyone see it, it had him pointing to his head! My guess is because he made a lot of horrible decision's and was probably the worst president in the history of presidency.



I've learned many things about satire, I learned that it is a nice and humourous way to expose a person weakness without them taking it the wrong way. 

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Irony

We use or see irony everyday in life, no matter where we are. We see it in train stations,trains on bill
boards and ads as we walk in the streets. Irony is an implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. This also means opposite of the literal meaning.  In the poem "Richard Cory" Richard someone everyone had respect for because he was well mannered and handsome."He was a gentleman from sole to crown","Went home and put a bullet through his head" Although everything was looking good for Richard on the outside but he must had a lot on his mind because the irony of the
story is Richard ended up taking his life by shooting himself in the head even though everyone assumed he was doing pretty good in life.
In the "GIFT OF MAGI" Della cut her long beautiful hair because she only had 1.78 to buy Jim a Christmas present so she went out and sold it for 20 dollars. Della went all over town trying to find a decent present for Jim and came across a chain for a watch for 21 dollars. She thought Jim would love the chain for the watch so she brought it and was left with .78 cents. When she went back and gave Jim the chain for the watch he had sold his watch to get her a set of combs. This was so ironic because they both went all out for each other to get gifts and at the end both the gifts they got for each other couldn't be put to use.
In "The House Slaves Built" it was unheard of to have African American people over in the White House,this all change when Fredrick Douglas was a guest in the White House and invited by Abraham Lincoln. He actually appeared 3 times while Lincoln was in presidency. This had the media furious, the irony of the story is although the black people built the White House they were still not allowed in it.
In "Is It Ironic That Many People Don't Understand Irony" they give a lot of examples of what is irony and how you can and can not use it in a sentence.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Metaphor

A metaphor is the comparison of two things without using the words "like and as". Metaphors are used in everyday life and are found in many things that we like to read such as poems, books, magazines. For example "the room is a pigsty." this metaphor means that the room is filthy and unorganized. There are many kinds of metaphors for example Simile, personification, anthropomorphism, hyperbole, parable, fable, animism, and analogy. Simile is using the words like and as, for example her smile lit up like the sun on a hot sunny day. The simile in this was "like the sun". Personification is giving human qualities to animals or objects for example the sun was happy so he let out a lot of heat, the personification in this was "the sun was happy" the sun has no emotions but I gave him human qualities. Hyperbole is exaggeration or overstatement meaning to gas something up more then it really is. For example "When the man sits on his wallet he is 7 foot tall." The exaggeration on this was "sat on the wallet and was 7 foot tall." Parable is a story with a moral and lesson to it,for example anything that comes from the Bible is a parable because there are many lessons to be learned from the Bible. A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech and other powers of humankind, fables are usually for kids. In the poem Creativity the poet painted a image of a tree shadow in the room moving side to side like it was dancing,
"On the wall,there is a shadow,of a branch outside.It moves and it is dancing." This is personification. In the second poem Peace the poet compared the wind to a roaring monster of destruction "The wind is now,a roaring,smashing,monster of destruction." This gave qualities to the rain so it is also personification. the drawing of the elephant shows a blind man touching on a elephant and comparing him to a bunch of things using the words like and as. For  example the blind man said the elephant is like a  repossessed s.u.v.  the man probably made that comparison because the elephant is big and strong like a s.u.v. In the poem Dinnertime chorus there is a lot of personification. Dinnertime Chorus
The teapot sang as the water boiled
The ice cubes cackled in their glass
the teacups chattered to one another.
While the chairs were passing gas
The gravy gurgled merrily
As the oil danced in a pan.
Oh my dinnertime chorus
What a lovely, lovely clan!

The poet compared a tea pot that is boiling to a person who is singing. They gave it human characteristic by saying it had a conversation with each other. The lion in love is a fable because it said the lion fell in love with a beautiful girl and asked her parents if he could marry her, the parents were so scared to say no to the lion that they told him they would consider the offer if he cut his claws and took of the long sharp teeth. The lion was so in love that he went and did everything the parents had suggested. When he comes back to show the parents how much he really cared for their daughter they just laughed at him. The poem I chose by Emily Dickinson was "I took my power in my hand"

I took my power in my hand
And went against the world;
'T was not so much as David had,
But I was twice as bold.
I aimed my pebble, but myself
Was all the one that fell.
Was it Goliath was too large,
Or only I too small?

The metaphor that's in this poem is personification because she said she took power in her hands and went against the world. My second poem for Emily Dickinson was "the wind"

The wind tapped like a tired man,
And like a host, "Come in,"
I boldly answered; entered then
My residence within
A rapid, footless guest,
To offer whom a chair
Were as impossible as hand
A sofa to the air.
No bones had he to bind him,
His speech was like the push
Of numerous humming-birds at once
From a superior bush.
His countenance a billow,
His fingers, if he pass,
Let go a music, as of tunes
Blown tremulous in glass.
He visited, still flitting;
Then, like a timid man,
Again he tapped -'t was flurriedly -
And I became alone.

In this poem Dickinson used simile because she said the wind tapped like a tired man. This meant it wasn't a windy day because we can imagine a tired man being lazy and slow. metaphor that is apart of my life is "A Roller Coaster"  Life consists of ups and downs, and we are along for the ride. This is true because in life we go through a lot of ups and downs meaning we have good days and bad days we just have to learn to deal with the challenges and pull through it. Not everyday is going to be a good day so make the best out of everyday.