The Reservation

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior and his family and the rest of the Native Americans living on the reservation have had many limitations in their lives. These limitations were in part due to poverty, and other social issues within the reservation. It was hard for many people within the reservation to get out of poverty,let alone achieve their dreams, as the mentality they grew up with restricted their belief in what they could and could not do. The reservation is not the only place where people do not have the same opportunities than others. Many neighborhoods within Chicago are poor and due to that poverty, it creates an environment in which people feel hopeless and turn to other methods for surviving, which are not always safe or legal. People who grow up in these communities do not believe that they have the same opportunities than others and some of the time, they do not. Much like the people living in the reservation, they are at a disadvantage. However, it does not mean that it is impossible to better your situation. Arnold is living proof. If one can seize the right moment and opportunity when it comes along, one can also better their lives.

Native Son

Bigger is a complex character in a situation that is of his own making. There are many different things he could have done to prevent the situation from escalating to this level. However, Bigger is a product of his environment, much like everyone else in the world, and many of the decisions he made was driven for his fear and hatred of white people, and his overall situation. This in no way justified his actions, and in fact doesn't even make him a likable character. Bigger when given opportunities to redeem himself or at least make him likable, understandable, he does the one thing that makes you feel the exact opposite.  If we are strictly looking at what his crimes are and not consider his background and circumstance then, yes, he is guilty of killing Mary Dalton, He is guilty of killing and raping Bessie, but he is innocent in that he did not rape Mary Dalton. Though when Bigger is convicted the media warps his image as a dangerous black man who raped and killed Mary Dalton on purpose and treat him as if he were an animal. This is the way Bigger expects to be treated by white people, when Mary and Jan treated him differently he felt uncomfortable and he did not know how to react and hated them for not being the way he expects all white people to be. When Bigger realized  he killed Mary Dalton a white woman he knew it would probably not end well for him, which led to him burning her body etc. However, he started to like the idea that he killed not Mary Dalton, but a white person, a race of people that hated him and discriminated him. This was him gaining control, and he started to like the feeling of having the ability to kill another person if he wanted to. I honestly believe something was wrong with Bigger mentally, even before Mary Dalton he always reacted so violently whenever he had any strong emotion, and he started to become more paranoid and anxious once he killed Mary Dalton.  He became obsessed with his own self preservation and once he embraced his fate as a killer he basically decided to become the  man that so many white people expected of black men, these violent animals, which is not the case of course. This is displayed how he mistreats Bessie, takes advantage of her and treats he like she is nothing, using her for his own personal gain.  In the very end it is sad the way he is treated and how he has this sense of hopelessness now that he was caught for his crimes. I  appreciated the fact that Max wanted to represent Bigger and try to help him out, however it must have been mostly to do with him trying to defend the communist party, but he still tried to show how it is unfair the way African Americans were treated, and tried through Bigger to stop the injustice.   In the end I still don't like Bigger personally, however I do feel bad towards the end and the circumstance Bigger had to go through, but it is inexcusable what he did to Bessie. Mary might've been an accident, but Bessie wasn't, and overall all how he was as a person. 

Green Lights, Yellow cars and Church Steeples

The green light at the end of Daisy's dock in The Great Gatsby represented Gatsby's hopes and dreams. That green light at the end of her dock was an indication that despite all this time that has passed he still held on to his dream and hope for being with her again. That green light was his beacon of hope, the signal that she was still there within his reach, and perhaps one day they will see each other once again, which we know that they do later on in the book.  

"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us" pg 180. 

This quote further proves that despite all the troubles and set backs Gatsby had to take nothing ever stopped him from chasing his dream, from chasing Daisy. Even though in the end it did not quite work his way. 

Gatsby had his bright yellow car that represented wealth, but in a different way. Yellow seems like the cheap version of gold, he didn't have a golden car, but a yellow one. Gatsby was new money, and people that were new money tended to be very flashy and too grand and luxurious. It made people that were new money seemed less classy, as the simple yet refined people from old money. They weren't too flashy with bright yellow cars or other ridiculous shiny new things, they showed their wealth through a different way. They did not need to prove how rich they were, the way they carried themselves was a strong indication of the kind of people they were, they wore clothes that despite from looking simple on he outside the quality of those clothes might have been as expansive as buying a whole house. Even Tom uses Gatsby's car to poke fun at him, trying to show how truly ridiculous the car looks. The yellow car can also mean death considering that was the car that did hit myrtle and killed her.  

The mentioning of Kant and his church steeple relates to the fact that Immanuel Kant was a real person who was a German philosopher. Kant said that he developed his theories on morality and reality while looking at a church steeple outside his window. This relates to the quote by giving Gatsby’s house meaning giving it this symbol of extravagance and luxuriousness and how it contrasts to the man who owns the house itself. Immanuel Kant created many texts involving religion and one in particular focusing on the idea of the visible and invisible church. Perhaps Gatsby and his house is suppose to somehow be an interpretation of that idea. That idea being that the invisible church is one’s morality and personal relationship with God and the visible church being the institutionalized church that people gather around and practice their beliefs in as a community.  Gatsby’s enormous house can be a representation of the visible church what we see from the outside of who he is, which is the is extravagant luxurious person, this house where people gather in to party and wonder and talk about Gatsby. Gatsby himself can be the invisible church, who he really is underneath the materialistic things he possesses and the rumors, what his morals and personal beliefs are, which we know to be that he wasn't rich to begin with, he had to work hard and sell this idea of success through his newly obtained wealth. We also know that it was all for his real dream which was Daisy, to be with her once more .

Janie

      Janie is a very interesting character and her growth as the story moves along is shown. In the beginning of the story she was lost and was, according to Janie later on in the text, misguided by her grandmother.

     Janie's dream is to love and to be loved, but she didn't find it in Logan. Janie then runs off with Joe hopeful to find that love, but she doesn't find it with Joe. In fact, because of Joe's dominance and controlling personality, she fell even deeper into her loneliness and becomes more confused on who she is as a person and her own dreams.

  

    It is not until after Joe starts to be even more cruel to her than usual that she starts to realize that is not what she wants for herself. Joe is not the same man she tried to find love with. The death of Joe truly liberates her. It gives her the opportunity to be herself and to come to terms with what she wants, what she likes and what her dreams are. It is a time to focus on her own development as a woman and as a person, without anyone instilling their own dreams and beliefs upon her.

     Realizing that her grandmother led her to believe love was not what it really was, she was forming her own beliefs. The process of trying to achieve her dreams and learning more about herself is a sign of true growth.  I admire Janie for speaking out to Joe at last and standing up for herself, that was one of the real signs of her development as a character and by establishing herself as a person with her own beliefs. 

Thankful for a Classmate

          On this Thanksgiving morning as I spend some quality time with my lovely (yet slightly crazy) family, I think of other people in my life that I am also thankful for. There are a lot of people in the school and out of school that I am tremendously grateful for, but since I am restricted to a first period English class, I can only think of one student that I am truly grateful for. This student is Tikal, we met this year and she is very nice to not only to me, but to everyone. We also share another class in which we both try our hardest to make it through together (the struggle is real). Mostly I am grateful for her because she is funny, and very helpful. Tikal was the one who was kind enough to tell me about completing   this blog post and any other work I was missing when I was unexpectedly absent on Tuesday. This among other things are why I am grateful for Tikal. 

A Principle We Should Keep

     The book The Road  expresses the difficulties of sticking with your principles in extreme situations. Challenges come up in many parts of the book that make it difficult for the characters to follow their principles and beliefs.  In the real world, almost everyone follows their own principles and are encouraged to stick with them no matter what.  One principle I think is important to follow is to treat others the way you want to be treated.

        Treating people the way you want to be treated is usually taught at a young age. It is known as the "golden rule." If you live by this principle, you will likely do good by others. I also believe in karma, so if you do bad unto others, it is all going to come back to you. People should treat each other with respect no matter what, be civil and polite to other people no matter what your preconceived ideas are about who that person might be. Treat people as if those people were all copies of you. I don't think anyone would want to disrespect themselves or treat themselves badly. Following the golden rule is very important beacuse it allows people to be more empathetic and compassionate toward one another. This golden rule would eliminate a lot of problems in our society.

Hemingway (10-26-14)

   
      Ernest Hemingway was known to be the greatest writer of his time. I believe his work is rather impressive and unique compared to other authors' writing. Perhaps that is why so many believe him to be one of the best authors in American literature. One aspect of his writing that is impressive to me, is that all of his stories follow the "iceberg theory". The iceberg theory is that in a story there is the surface, this is what you read and what you are told in the story. However, there is something beneath the surface the deeper meaning of that story in which the reader has to figure out what that is. I think that this a genius theory that he created and help get a deeper understanding in not only his stories, but any other stories that the reader is required to think deeper about the text. Ernest Hemingway was a great writer, however how he is as a person is a very different story. 
      Ernest Hemingway was not a bad person, however there were some choices he made in his life that are rather questionable. Those life choices he made are of course heavily influenced on his childhood, in which he didn't have the best relationship with his mother. This might be why so many of his relationships ultimately failed or why he had so many affairs. The way he treated his children based on what the       documentary said, was that when they came he would give them his full attention and take them to do many things. However when he doesn't see them they no longer exist, he didn't try to talk to them or contact them at all. The balance of how he treated his children was a little off, one extreme to the next, which could show that there was something in unstable in Ernest Hemingway as well. Either way for those reasons, his own personal struggles and experiences that are reflected in his writing is what made him so legendary and unique. Ernest Hemingway told stories about life just the way they were, that is why I think Ernest Hemingway is a great writer, but a man who sometimes not always did the right thing.