Monday, May 28, 2007

Thesis Paper

Centuries of knowledge could be lost if not for the books used to hold them for future generations. That’s why books can be powerful objects, a well educated person can break down numerous obstacles. As stated in a quote from Barbara Tuchman, “Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.” Bottom-line civilization functions the way it does thanks to books. Even a fictional novel like A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines is a great piece of literature that reminds us of the days when segregation was heavily enforced and that such history shouldn’t be forgotten.
The novel is classified as a fictional one, but the relation to real life events and historical events is pretty accurate. Setting takes place around the New Orleans region during the thirties and forties. During this period of time slavery had long been abolished, but yet the deeply segregated south prevented colored people from achieving true equality. Many public places were divided into whites or blacks only, they ranged from water fountains, restrooms, to especially schools. So the readers were constantly being reminded of the hardships colored people went through, even more so with the protagonist being a black teacher.
The protagonist’s name is Grant Wiggins and he is teacher to the colored children in the quarter he lived in. His whole journey through the novel has him in a conflict within himself and in part with another man. His self conflict comes from many different directions. For example, he is one who believes in God but unlike his aunt Tante Lou he chooses to not waste his time going to church. His lack of faith is a result of what he goes through everyday. His other self conflict has him hating himself for not escaping the vicious circle that he blames every black person to be stuck in. A circle in which the youth with a lack of education go off for a better life but instead end up dead.
His final conflict is the one that haunts him throughout the novel. It is a task to teach a man to be proud, respect himself, and prove everybody wrong. Even when that same man is facing the death penalty for a crime he did not commit. Jefferson was wrongfully accused of killing an old man when he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. How was Grant going to take a broken boy and make him a man? Grant could’ve cared less because Jefferson was just reproving his theory of the vicious circle. Still the task had been placed upon him by his aunt who had the best interest of her friend Emma in mind. Emma was Jefferson’s relative, his godmother. Grant taught literature, arithmetic, and history he saw it as impossible to teach a person how to better themselves when he can’t even find his own purpose.
On top of these personal conflicts Grant still had to deal with society. He was a teacher and probably more educated than half the white people in town, but still he was only second to them and this frustrated him. During conversations with white folks he had to dumb down his vocabulary just to let them know he was in his place and he meant no disrespect. Still he knew how to use his words as a weapon when provoked. When talking to sheriff Guidry he had said “Yes, Sir. She doesn’t feel that she can.”(pg.48) referring to miss Emma. The word doesn’t was used intentionally to flex his intellect on the sheriff, he was supposed to have said don’t. This situation could have very well been presented to many well educated black people who carried conversations with whites during those times. Again the book reminds us how in our history people were punished for what they had said or by the way they had said it.
What moved the story was a metaphor that was used to defend Jefferson at the beginning of the story during trial. His defendant compared Jefferson to a hog and used it as an excuse for his wrong doing. Jefferson was not a man but a hog, an animal without intelligence who didn’t know what he was doing. Is that what colored people were considered back then? Animals? A history lesson for most, respect was nonexistent in the majority of people. Grant did his best to send a man to die with honor and not a hog like society labeled Jefferson to be.
Jefferson’s death was inevitable, but the way that he walked to his death chair spoke volumes and was unexpected. He did Grant, his Nannan Emma, and especially the black community proud. He died with dignity and walked like a man, kneeling before no one. A symbolic figure of being a human being and a smack right to the face of the white community. Jefferson’s spirit was strong much like the people who’s hearts were with him.
While the novel started to come to a close the author lightened the ending with a more optimistic and brotherly conversation between Grant and deputy Paul. Both men had met at the jail where Jefferson was held at. As Grant puts it Paul was the only official at the jail that had genuine respect for everybody, no matter the color. After delivering a notebook and the news that Jefferson was now gone Paul extended his hand and spoke. “Allow me to be your friend, Grant Wiggins. I don’t ever want to forget this day. I don’t ever want to forget him.”(pg 255) Such a friendship during those times were hard to come by and was used by the author as a glimpse of things to come.
Overall the novel was powerful and insightful. It could’ve easily been an autobiography due to the believable cast of characters and historical accuracy. To prove the quote the book took us back in time to relive those times and made the history everything but silent.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Reflection

In my opinion the progress with my senior English blog portfolio was decent. I tried to keep up with my assignments as much as much as possible. All the work has been completely done. The overall layout of the blog is simple and not too busy. The only thing that could be a negative is the absence of pictures to personalize the blog.
All in all the idea of having a blog was interesting and new to me. Did I enjoy it? No. I feel much more comfortable writing out my papers than posting them online. Not to mention that there was always a risk of something happening to the portfolio online. People losing their passwords, adrress not working, and posts gone missing. It was just too messy, still it was an experience.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Death of Tupac

Rapper Tupac Shakur was caught in the middle of the famous East coast, West coast rap war. As the name states it consisted of well known rappers battling to defend the dignity of their home. Tupac represented the West coast and belonged to the record label Death Row. At the time when the feud was at it's peak things took a turn for the worst. It was September 1996 and Tupac had just finished watching the world heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon.
After the fight he drove with a couple of his friends to a locale nightclub and during that brief moment a car pulled up beside them and orchestrated a drive-by. Tupac was shot 5 times and lived through it till he reached the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Nobody was arrested for the murder, which raised many questions. He was dead but no one saw anything and their were no clues to lead the case anywhere.
Till this day the murder is still a mystery, people even think that he had faked his own death to escape his problems. He has even sold multiple records and made millions after his alleged death. My guess is that the murder hasn't been solved because their is something wrong with the whole picture. How many dead people can sell albums for multiple years and go platinum? Just think about that.
http://members.aol.com/subseven/tupac.html
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/viewpoint/tupac.html

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Flash Fiction Story 3

"Blondes Have More Fun" by Phil Gardner
http://www.philgardner.net/mfBlondes.html

Analysis: In this story Gardner continues his trend of irony. The main character is a woman who speaks about how she is going to do things to please her husband. There is basically no conflict in the story (unless you take into account the charater's gender confusion). In true flash fiction form the readers were kept in the dark till the end which brings out a bigger reaction out of them. The woman ended up being a man, it got a good reaction out of me.

Flash Fiction Story 2

"No Moon" by Phil Gardner
http://www.philgardner.net/mfMoon.html

Analysis: This flash story had a wanna be mugger or stalker and a woman as the characters.This story is one of my favorites because of the irony. Right from the beginning the author tries to establish how dark it was. The title even read "no moon" which would lead to a very dark night. With this information the reader would believe that they had the setting figured out. But like me they would be dead wrong. As the story and the conflict between the two characters came to a close I learned that the twist was that it was plain daytime. This was hilarious because the mugger took his time to be dressed totally black and be stealthy. Just to be stupid enough to pull it off in the daytime and fail. It was a good story, especially the closing line "Damn. This would've worked better at night."

Friday, April 27, 2007

Flash Fiction Story 1

"Chasing Death" by Kimberly Holt-Whitlock
http://www.wingedhalo.com/mag/chasing.html

Analysis: This short story has three characters, a little girl and her mother and father. The setting of the story is centered around the departure of a mother and the broken heart of the daughter. The obvious conflict had to be stationed around the mother and the father, but the reason is not clear. At the surface the story seems simplistic, mother leaves family. But the title and the father's last line leaves the reader to question who's chasing death. Could it be the mother leaving in a symbolic black car or the daughter chasing the black car? It's up to your interpretation.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Newborn Poem

The pains started arriving quicker and sharper.
His hand belittled by his wife's grasp.
His red face outdone by his wife's beet red face.

"Hang in there honey, we're almost there,"he assured her.
But he himself was nervous and drenched in sweat.
There was nothing he could but let the ambulance reach it's destination.

The ambulace stopped and they poured out in seconds.
The soon to be mother was rushed to a room .
While her husband followed ready to show his support.

"BREATH!!, take deep breaths."
With the final push little cries could be heard .
Mother and father rejoice for they have within their lives a baby girl.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Task 5

http://www.answers.com/topic/mama-pacha
http://sacredearthdesigns.com/goddess/pendants/pachamama.html
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/u/uzume.html.
http://www.hranajanto.com/goddessgallery/pgfx/uzume-400-jpg.
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761563569_8/dominican_republic.html
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/americas/dominican_republic-famous-dominicans.html
http://www.crystalinks.com/chinamythology.html
http://www.rincondominicano.com/historia/trujillo/images/grandes/trujillo1924.jpg
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Trujillo.html
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9031318/Juan-Pablo-Duarte
http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/Marichal_Juan.htm
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=maricju01

Jordan, Michael. Gods and Goddesses. New York, NY: Facts on file, 2004.
Gray, John. Near Eastern Mythology. The Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1969.
Japanese Gods and Myths. Edison, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, 1998.
Nicholson, Irene. Mexican and Central American Mythology. New York, NY: Peter Bedrick Books, 1967.

Task 4

Original God and Goddess: Ochigku and Shakra.

Ochigku is the god of hunting. He is praised by the Nomads for their abilities to catch food. Since Nomads don't settle down to grow crops they have to hunt. So, they look towards Ochigku for strength and luck to find a meal. His character is somewhat serious. Tribute is paid to him by giving some offerings, like a portion of the hunt. The offering is placed in the animals skull and left there untouched. This sometimes works with or against the nomadic tribe. If there is a large number of animals hunted then the left-overs would go straight to Ochigku. That's a good thing because it's believed that Ochigku hates to see food go to waste. But, if there aren't many animals to hunt then the tribe would have a problem because they still would have to offer to Ochigku. Ochigku is characterized as a young fit man. He has with him a fox as his traveling companion and his weapon of choice, a set of bow and arrows.

Shakra is the Goddess of the stars and the moon. She is also worshiped by the Nomads. She is thought to protect them at night from evil spirits by beaming her moonlight upon them. Her character is thought to be joyous and brilliant which is why it's said that her happiness is what illuminates the night sky. She is characterized as a beautiful young girl wearing a light blue robe and laying on a large puff of cloud. Tribute is paid is to her by dancing around a small fire under her watch. They believe that when she sees other people filled with laughter and smiles it also makes her happy, keeping the moon and stars lit.

Task 3

Famous and interesting people of my culture:

Juan Pablo Duarte (1813-76): Was a national hero of the Dominican Republic. He was the leader of the famous "La Trinitaria" which proclaimed and won independence from Haiti in 1844. He died in Caracas, Venezuela, at the age of 63. His remains were transferred to Dominican soil in 1884, by president(dictator) Ulises Heureaux, and were given a proper burial with honors. His birth is commemorated by Dominicans every January 26.

Juan Marichal: Marichal was born in October 20, 1937, in Laguna Verde, Dominican Republic. He made his MLB debut in7/19/1960. He made his debut with a 2-0 one-hit victory over the Phillies. He was the pride of both the Dominican Republic and the Giants. He won 243 games and lost only 142 over 16 seasons. The high-kicking right hander enjoyed six 20 win seasons, hurled a no-hitter in1963, and was named to nine All-Star teams.

Ozzie Virgil: Virgil was born on May 17, 1933 in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic. He became the first Dominican to play major league baseball in the U.S. He was an utility player who had a nine year career, played for the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants all of the national league. The Detroit Tigers, Kansas City A's, Baltimore Orioles all of the American league.

Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina(Oct 24, 1891-May 30, 1961): Trujillo was dictator of the Dominican Republic. He was first elected to the presidency in 1930, where he eliminated all opposition, thereby acquiring absolute control of the nation. For 31 years he presided over one of the tightest dictatorships in the world. During his power many new hospitals and housing projects were finished. Also public health facilities, harbors, and roads were improved. He died on May 30, 1961 by form of assassination.