Blog Post 26: Date WHOEVER

Schools and society's can become more accepting of works such as "How to date a Brown Girl" if they would just give everyone a fair chance. Instead of calling it Black, White, Hispanic, Indian Literature and so on why cant the world just look at it as LITERATURE. The world gets to caught up in skin color. Everyone needs to be given a equal opportunity and chance at getting there point across. To quickly a school or community can shut out certain things (such as Hispanic Literature in a white neighborhood) just because it does not fit with what they regularly read.
Each works was Unique in its own way. "How to eat a Guava" was written from a childs perspective but by a adult. It showed what kids in her native culture do on a regularly basis compared to how now as she is a adult in America, can just buy them from a fruit stand. The other work "How to date a Brown Girl" is written in a manner that is very strait forward. Instead of giving leeway and saying stuff to avoid going straight to the main point, the author tells you everything exactly how it happens. The final work "Hell-Heaven" shows how up tight the Indian culture is. Where the white man has freedom to do whatever he pleases the women is stuck in her culture. Each writer expresses a different problem or event in there society and it goes to show how different cultures are depending on where in the world you originate from.

Blog Post 24

The younger adult and child varied greatly. To start off the chapter we see how the kid on the yacht was humble. He did not want to become like his parents and be farmers and live a little seldom life. The young boy had big hopes and dreams and something to live and strive for. We find out how Gatsby lied about his entire past which shows how he is a low and shallow person. On page 98, we are told his parents "were shiftless and unsuccessful farm people" (98). As a young kid on a yacht, it would be very hard to look as farming being a fun future. So instead Gatsby makes dreams and aspiration and stuff to look forward to that will be extravagant unlike his parents farming life. He even goes on to say "he didn't really consider them as parents" (98). The older Gatsby has accomplished anything any man could dream of and is sitting on stacks on stacks of cash. He has nothing to dream of and look forward to, so he become somewhat of a introvert.  Gatsby at a younger age had imagined his life out and about going places and making memories, but instead he is now found stuck at his house dreaming about one girl. Gatsby entire past he told us about was all a made up dream. He is now stuck in it and get get out to find what he truly wants.

Blog Post 23

The reunion of Daisy and Gatsby, a rather sordid relationship, signals simultaneously the beginning and the end of Gatsby’s dream and of his success. This statement is very true. Gatsby used to be in love with Daisy, before he had to go off to war. When the war was over, for some unknown reason to the readers, Gatsby could not return to Daisy. All this time away from Daisy Gatsby has been dying to get back together with her. He bought his house across the bay from Daisy on purpose. The reunion of Daisy and Gatsby signaled the beginning of Gatsby's dream, which is to live happily ever after with his love, Daisy. Ever since Gatsby has left he has dreamed of getting back with Daisy. As Gatsby takes Nick to lunch one day he tell Nick "I am going to ask a big request of you today" (67). This quote shows how Gatsby considerers Nick asking Daisy over to his house for tea as a "big deal". In reality it is not a big deal at all for Nick since him and Daisy are cousins. Him meeting up and being reunited with Daisy signals the start to a great future between the two of them. On the flip side, these two being reunited shows the end of one of Gatsby's dreams. It ends the long days Gatsby sat around waiting, and thinking and throwing parties hoping Daisy would just show up. Now that she has come back, his bad dream of him being alone is abolished. Now that Gatsby has been reunited he will be able to have greater success. He now has something to live for.

Blog Post 22

The first character I will talk about is Nick Carraway. He is a younger man who traveled to new York and started to learn the bond business his first summer in New York. Nick shows a strong virtue. Nicks diligence should take him a long way in this novel. He is quiet and modest and will not spread rumors as we have seen so far. People like to talk to nick since he has good integrity.
The next character is Daisy. So far in the book daisy has been looked at as a dumb (possibly acting like this on purpose) women. She is never making much sense and annoying other. I could connect her to the sin Slothfulness. She is married to her husband, Tom, for his money, which makes me think she does not want to work much. Honestly it is hard to blame her since her husband is described as "hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that"(6). By saying "do that" they were referring to bringing down a string of polo ponies from lake forest to his new home in the east egg.
Tom is the final character. Tom has both Greed and Pride. because of where he has been in his life and what he has accomplished, such as being "the most powerful end to have ever played football at New Haven" (6). With money usually comes greed and pride, and I think that the excessive amount of money he has accumulated has led to these sins.

Blog Post 21

Throughout the book we have seen the use of many colors. The author is incorporating different colors into his text to stand for much bigger things. When Nick arrives home after his dinner at Toms house, he looks out and see's what we can assume is The Great Gatsby himself standing on the end of a pier staring off into the distance at a flashing green light. Into the second chapter, around the beginning we are told about the valley of ashes which is located around the middle of the West Egg and New York. On page 27 there is a brief description of the Valley of Ashes: "where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air" (27). This Valley is described with words such as smoke, dim, and ashes. All of these words resemble the color gray. I think the authors used the green light in the two eggs as a bright color, possibly representing wealth and money. Back then, brighter colors cost much more. In the valley, where people have less money, all the stuff is dull and gray. The colors in these 2 chapters show the difference between the residents in the two areas.

Blog Post 20

I do  believe Billy is supposed to be a Christ figure.The only thing that makes me think otherwise is before the war Billy was a weakling and Billy prefers sinking over swimming. The connections I can make it to Billy being a Christ figure is that he becomes unstuck in time an can move to and from different events in his life. Both Billy and Christ wanted to warn people about something coming. Christ wanted to spread news about God and Billy wants to spread news about Tralfamadorians. The other connection would be that Billy is re-birthed after he time travels just like Christ rebirth. This shows Billy has some control in the fourth dimension. Also Billy is not afraid of death. Well it's either that or he does not care. Every time somebody dies we see him say "so it goes". Throughout the book we see the mention Adam and Eve. When we hear references about Adam and Eve we think about the beginning of time. I think enemies are mentioned over and over because they connected to Billy in some way. Billy in constantly time travelings to random points in his life. I think they make the reference to Adam and Eve because they had unlimited access to power until they ate the apple. So maybe they could have time traveled and been in the 4th dimension just like Billy is. Billy also believes that death is not the final part of life just like Jesus believed in the afterlife.

Blog Post 19: Its a Circle, not a Square

It has been said that Slaughterhouse-Five is written in a circular pattern. I do not entirely agree with this statement. A Circular pattern usually refers to a story where the ending is in the same place as the start of the novel was. One area that makes me believe slaughterhouse five is writing in circular pattern is shown when Billy is "unstuck" in time. While reading the book I thought it would be centered around the bombing at Dresden, but so far Billy Pilgrim and his life after the war is what has been mainly talked about. Personally, I do not find any structure in the novel. Kurt Vonnegut seems to not care what order of events happen in. In fact it took him 23 years to write this novel. The first chapter in this book was written after the after the rest of the novel is finished. I don't see how he could have any structure when writing from the end to the start. From what we have read, we keep jumping to different parts of the circle randomly. There are many plots in the book that live on their own and have nothing to do with the bombing at Dresden. Sometimes the plot is very hard to follow due to the fact that he keeps time traveling. Every time he time travels a completely changes the plot the only part about the time traveling that makes me Think that the book has a circular pattern is that every time he time travels he comes back to his original starting spot where he was left off.